<p>LONDON — Former British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday he never suspected that a financial services company he lobbied for would go under, threatening thousands of jobs at a steel firm it helped finance.</p>
<p>Cameron was summoned to answer lawmakers’ questions about his efforts to win government funds for Greensill Capital. His involvement with the firm has spurred inquiries into political lobbying in Britain.</p>
<p>The former Conservative Party leader is a key link in a chain of contacts between government ministers, civil servants and Greensill, which collapsed in March. The bankruptcy forced the owner of Liberty Steel, which employs about 5,000 people, to seek a British government bailout. Greensill was one of the company’s key financial backers.</p>
<p>Cameron told Parliament’s Treasury Committee he had “no sense at all” that the company was in danger.</p>
<p>“There was certainly no sense of jeopardy” at board meetings, he said.</p>
<p>Cameron became a part-time adviser to the firm two years after he left office in 2016. Greensill Capital was founded by Australian banker Lex Greensill — a former adviser to Cameron’s government.</p>
<p>During the coronavirus outbreak, Cameron sent text messages to U.K. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak and emailed the Bank of England in an effort to secure government-backed loans for Greensill under a program to help companies hurt by the pandemic. He also lobbied Health Secretary Matt Hancock on behalf of a Greensill product that would have allowed health care workers to receive advance payments on their salaries.</p>
<p>Cameron said he was motivated by a desire to help support British workers and businesses “in the economic turmoil caused by COVID” and not by the prospect of making millions from his Greensill shares.</p>
<p>“I was paid an annual amount, a generous annual amount, far more than I earned as prime minister, and I had shares,” said Cameron, who earned about 200,000 pounds ($280,000) a year when he was U.K. leader.</p>
<p>“I absolutely had a big economic investment in the future of Greensill, I wanted the business to succeed,” he said. But he insisted the amount he stood to make was “a private matter.”</p>
<p>Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government has launched its own investigation into lobbying, led by a lawyer, but opponents doubt it will get to the truth. </p>
<p>Opposition parties are calling for tougher rules on contacts between business representatives and government officials, saying Britain’s laxly enforced lobbying regulations leave the door open to corruption.</p>
<p>Cameron said his appearance before the committee, by video link, was “a painful day.”</p>
<p>“I abided by the rules that were in place,” he said. “But rules alone are never enough.</p>
<p>“I completely accept that former prime ministers are in a different position to others because of the office that we held and the influence that continues to bring. We need to think differently and act differently.”</p>
