SCOTLAND'S longest-serving MP has hit out at the cronyism crisis engulfing the Tory government at Westminster – saying Scots can ditch the “House of Sleaze” for an independent future.

It was recently revealed that former prime minister David Cameron lobbied UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Matt Hancock on behalf of finance firm Greensill Capital in an attempt to secure access to taxpayer-funded Covid loan schemes.

There are currently seven inquiries looking to investigate this latest Tory scandal.

Last week, it also emerged that Prime Minister Boris Johnson intervened in a buyout of Newcastle United after receiving a text from Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in June 2020. 

Salman warned Johnson that UK/Saudi relationships would be damaged if he did not intervene in the £300 million bid to buy the club from Mike Ashley.

This is on top of multiple revelations that firms linked to Tory party donors have been handed billions of pounds worth of Covid contracts, without any competitive tendering process.

READ MORE: 'Coincidence' Tory donors given billions in Covid contracts, Matt Hancock says

With just over two weeks to go until the Holyrood election on May 6, Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, urged people in Scotland to send a message to the UK Tory government.

He said: “The latest reports of Tory dealings with Greensill have shocked the nation - but are just the latest headlines showing the Tories mired in a cesspit of Westminster sleaze which they simply cannot run away from.

"The Greensill scandal, Covid contracts for Tory donors and the personal intervention from PM Boris Johnson at a Saudi prince’s request all prove that this Tory government is dominated and driven by cronyism - and people in Scotland want nothing to do with it.

“There are now just 16 days until polling day, when people in Scotland are asked: who has the right to decide Scotland’s future after the pandemic – people in Scotland or Boris Johnson? As every sordid detail is reported, more people in Scotland want to ditch the House of Sleaze and put Scotland’s future in our own hands.”

There are currently seven different inquiries looking into various aspects of government lobbying in Westminster with a particular focus on the Greensill scandal.

The Westminster committees that have so far set up inquiries into the scandal are: Treasury Select Committee, Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Public Accounts Committee and The Committee on Standards in Public Life.

There is also an independent inquiry that was ordered by No 10 which is being chaired by corporate lawyer Nigel Boardman.

READ MORE: Senior Tory who served under David Cameron defends 'robust system' on lobbying

The National Audit Office, which acts as a parliamentary spending watchdog, is looking at how Greensill Capital was authorised to issue financial support through the coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CBILS). 

Greensill got access to CBILS after Cameron failed to persuade government ministers to allow it access to loans under the Covid corporate financing facility (CCFF).

There is also a Cabinet Office review into civil servants and conflicts of interest which has ordered senior officials to reveal all outside interests so they can be declared and examined.