APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax

So before the Global Illicit Finance Summit next June, we need to close these loopholes to show real global leadership – and practice what we demand of others: close secrecy gaps, enforce the rules, and ensure transparency across every part of the UK family.

The UK's claim to global leadership risks being critically undermined by such flows of dirty money through some of its own Overseas Territories. This also hampers development, weakens institutions, and enables organised crime and kleptocracy worldwide.

Before the launch, Phil and Lloyd Hatton MP led a Dirty Money Walking Tour starting outside the Royal Courts of Justice, showing how dirty money is laundered here in practice – through legal tactics that intimidate scrutiny, and opaque company structures linked to UK jurisdictions.

🌍Today is International Anti-Corruption Day!

Yesterday, the Government published its Anti-Corruption Strategy – timely recognition that corruption is a threat to democracy. We co-sponsored the launch event, where our Chair @philbrickellmp.bsky.social welcomed the UK’s anti-corruption drive.

9/ So the new Anti-Corruption Strategy sets the right ambition - but now we need action to match it.

We look forward to engaging the Government over the coming months and years to work on the next steps and truly make the UK the anti-corruption capital of the world.

Follow for more updates.

PM vows to stop rich and powerful silencing journalists as he sounds AI warning Keir Starmer said his Government will bring in measures to prevent powerful people intimidating journalists away from telling the truth as he said the media is 'the lifeblood of democracy'

8/ This lacks the urgency that the problem demands, considering the Prime Minister himself has described the current situation as ‘intolerable’.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

7/ There are other commitments in the Strategy which are welcome, but in need of improvement.

For example, the Strategy says the Government will “consider the future approach for comprehensively tackling all SLAPPs” (commitment 1.2.5) by 2029.

6/ We welcome the Strategy’s commitment to explore strengthening economic crime enforcement funding.

We campaign for a ringfenced, multi-year Economic Crime Fighting Fund, to use reinvested criminal cash to bolster enforcement agencies like the National Crime Agency and Serious Fraud Office.

The transparency registers that weren’t UK ministers have praised five of the UK’s Overseas Territories for searchable registers revealing who really owns companies registered there. TaxWatch has found that one of these new registers doesn'...

5/ The Strategy aims to “work with Britain’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to enhance corporate transparency”, but we’ve been here before.

Many, many times.

www.taxwatchuk.org/the-transpar...

4/ So this will be a key opportunity for the UK to lead a coalition of the willing on anti-corruption.

But Britain’s credibility in hosting a Countering Illicit Finance Summit will be undermined if some of its own Overseas Territories continue enabling illicit financial flows on a global scale.

3/ The Government announced over the weekend that the UK will hold a Countering Illicit Finance Summit in June 2026.

The APPG has long called for UK global leadership on illicit finance, given the UK’s position as a major financial centre.

2/ The Strategy promises a review of asset ownership in the UK, overseen by the Anti-Corruption Champion.

We have policy recs for greater transparency over who owns what in Britain, including for information about who sits behind secretive trusts.

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UK anti-corruption strategy 2025 Strategy to reduce the harm caused by corruption to growth, security and democracy in the UK, and to UK interests overseas.

🧵1/ Welcoming the UK’s new Anti-Corruption Strategy!

It’s an ambitious statement of intent, and our APPG welcomes many of its new commitments, with some reservations.

Here’s a thread of our reactions to key elements of the new strategy…👇

www.gov.uk/government/p...

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📊 New research from @transparencyuk.bsky.social on key Territories' progress in implementing open corporate registers does not paint a good picture of some key players.

Our Chair @philbrickellmp.bsky.social and member Lloyd Hatton MP on why this matters to all of us:

bsky.app/profile/appg...

❗ "Companies registered in UK Overseas Territories have been used in more than 273 large-scale corruption and money laundering cases... £250bn across 79 countries. The BVI featured in 92% of these cases. Almost £6bn of this money was used to purchase UK properties through shell companies."

Yesterday's budget was a step in the right direction, but financial secrecy in our own Overseas Territories continues to erode our tax base and enable crime.

We need to bring an end to dirty money flooding through places like the British Virgin Islands.

If we're serious about tackling dirty money, this is a key moment to make sure places like the British Virgin Islands put a stop to the embarrassing and costly practice of financial secrecy which enables:

👉 money laundering,
👉 fraud
👉 sanctions busting

The budget wasn't the only show in town this week - here’s our Chair @philbrickellmp.bsky.social and APPG member Lloyd Hatton on why today's Government meeting with the UK's Overseas Territories matters for communities across the country 👇

Government should create a ringfenced Economic Crime Fighting Fund, recycling recovered criminal cash into enforcement.

And it must finally deliver publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers in Britain’s OT's, so investigators can follow the money and expose corruption.

This directly reflects what we have been calling for – and it was good to see the Chancellor thanking our former Chair and APPG member @joepowell.bsky.social for our work on this issue.

But there is still more to do 👇

Great news!

After a campaign from the APPG, the Chancellor has made tackling dodgy high street businesses a priority in today’s Budget – setting aside £50 million a year for the next 3 years to boost enforcement against money laundering & tax evasion on our high streets.

🧵👇

2025 report: Clean Foundations for Growth — APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax Some studies estimate it costs the UK a staggering £350 billion a year —the annual health and education budget combined. The UK government seeks to accelerate economic growth in an increasingly uncer...

🧾4. Boost HMRC enforcement resources to go after wealthy individuals who use offshore and complex structures to avoid paying their fair share.

These are our clean foundations for growth - read our report here:

anticorruption-responsibletax.org/cleanfoundat...

💰2. Recycle cash seized from criminals back into a Economic Crime Fighting Fund for law enforcement to create a virtuous cycle, at no extra cost to the taxpayer.

🌴3. Deliver publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers in the Overseas Territories so investigators can 'follow the money.'

You might not have heard, but today is Budget Day! The APPG has four asks 🧵👇

🏪1. Take action on high street money laundering and tax abusing vape shops and barbershops, with stronger coordination and sustained local and national capacity to shut repeat offenders down.

The MPs highlighted how throwing open the books in British Overseas Territories could put a stop crooks and kleptocrats using offshore shell companies to:

💷 Enable tax abuse
🏪 Hide dodgy high street shops
🕵️‍♂️ Clean cash for organised crime gangs
🏠 Distort the housing market

🆕 The APPG has coordinated a letter to the Government signed by 18 cross party MPs calling for an end to “embarrassing and costly” offshore financial secrecy, as covered by Politico 👇

👉 It is precisely these kinds of revelations that make the upcoming Elections Bill so important, and why we need it to be as good as it can be. Follow us to read more about what we’ll be campaigning on in this space over the coming weeks.

This is a classic form of corruption: foreign money buying political speech.

What should alarm us is not just the revelations around Gill himself, but how easy it was. A few quiet payments routed via a Putin crony, and an elected representative is suddenly reading from a Kremlin-crafted script 👇

More MEPs investigated in Russian bribe probe | The Observer

A state cannot function if its politicians are for sale. That principle is foundational to any serious democracy.

Nathan Gill has been sentenced to 10+ years in prison for taking around £40,000 from a Kremlin proxy to promote pro-Russian lines 👇

observer.co.uk/news/politic...