Former Prime Minister David Cameron has not denied using the Greensill private jet to fly to his holiday home in Cornwall whilst giving evidence to MPs over his controversial lobbying of government ministers.

The Conservative former prime minister said it was a “painful day” for him on Thursday as he gave evidence to MPs over his lobbying of senior figures including Chancellor Rishi Sunak on behalf of the now collapsed investment firm Greensil Capital.

David Cameron said he had a “big economic investment” in the company but insisted that did not motivate his intense lobbying of the Government for the firm as coronavirus struck.

Mr Cameron placed calls and sent dozens of texts and emails to ministers and senior officials as he appealed for their help in gaining access for Greensill to Government Covid support programmes.

Asked by MPs how many times he had used the Greensill plane to fly to his home in Cornwall and was it a taxable benefit he said he used the plane quite a lot on business visits, and “a handful of times” on other visits. All proper taxes will be dealt with, he said.

According to the Guardian website, Mr Cameron said: "I haven’t got a complete record of the use of the planes.

"It was used quite a lot by Lex Greensill and senior managers, and sometimes myself on business visits.

"I did use it a handful of times on other visits, and of course all proper taxes and all those things would be dealt with in the proper way."

David Cameron is a regular visitor to Cornwall and his wife Samantha gave birth their fourth child at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in 2010.

Appearing virtually before the Commons Treasury Committee, he has insisted there was “absolutely no wrongdoing” in his actions and defended his lobbying efforts, but accepted that former prime ministers “need to think differently and act differently”.

He repeatedly refused to tell the MPs how much he stood to gain from his involvement with Greensill, saying only that he had a “big economic investment”.