David Cameron is said to have lobbied a top Chinese official over a planned £500million investment fund
David Cameron is lining up a job with a £500million investment fund after lobbying a top Chinese official, it emerged today.
The former Prime Minister met with Ma Kai, a vice-premier who heads Beijing’s finance ministry, to discuss a ‘UK-China Fund’ while on a trip to the country in September.
The project, which is being set up by his friend and Tory Peer Lord Chadlington, is intended to foster business links.
Mr Cameron’s office said today that he has applied to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about taking a role.
Mr Cameron has warned about ‘crony capitalism’ and referred to lobbying as ‘the next big scandal waiting to happen’.
A spokesman for Mr Cameron said the ‘correct processes would be followed’ before any role was agreed or announced.
‘David Cameron is proud of the work he did as Prime Minister to boost the UK / China trade and investment relationship,’ he said.
‘He has publicly supported the idea of a UK-China Fund to boost trade links and UK jobs, discussed the idea with government and travelled to China to gauge its potential.
‘Having already taken advice from ACOBA on the appropriate process, now that there is a real prospect of the Fund being established and of him potentially taking a role with the Fund, he has submitted an application to the Committee.
‘This happened three weeks ago. He will, of course, abide by any guidance or ruling they give.’
The ex-PM was reportedly accompanied on the China trip by Lord Chadlington.
Ennobled in 1996, the peer was chairman of the Conservative association in Witney when Mr Cameron became the Tory candidate.
He also gave £10,000 to the ex-PM’s successful leadership campaign in 2005.
The peer told The Times that he had been working on the proposed fund for three years but it was still ‘very, very much in its early stages’.
The former PM hailed a new ‘golden age’ for relations with China when he was in office, and memorably took President Xi Jinping to a pub during a state visit in 2015.
Mr Cameron stood down as MP for Witney in the wake of the EU referendum last year.
The former PM hailed a new ‘golden age’ for relations with China when he was in office, and memorably took President Xi Jinping to a pub during a state visit in 2015
Since then he has become president of the Alzheimer’s Research Society, and taken on a role with the National Citizen Service project he championed in government.
He has also filled his time making lucrative corporate speeches, and is writing his memoirs, for which is reportedly being paid £800,000.
Mr Cameron recently took an advisory job American electronic payment company First Data Corporation.
But friends insist he is determined not to ‘do a Tony Blair’ and advise foreign governments.