If you've got money, getting politicians to listen is often far easier than if you've just got a vote. That has to change. An independent review has backed reforms to drag lobbying out of the shadows. No more hidden meetings. No more special treatment. No more backroom deals.

A hostile foreign state cannot legally donate to a British political party. But it can give money to a British citizen, who then donates it instead. On paper it's a British donation. In reality, it's foreign money entering our politics through a middleman 👇

If your bank took a large payment without checking whether it came from a high-risk country, prominent politician or the proceeds of crime, it would be breaking the law. Political parties? Not so much... 👇

🚨🧵 1/3 The APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax supports the important work that the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards does in overseeing the rules for all parliamentarians. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Standards watchdog set to interview Farage over £5m gift

The Reform UK leader is facing scrutiny over money from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne and his links with George Cottrell

thetimes.com

It’s time to stop dodgy donors. I welcome the Government’s decision to accept all the recommendations from the Rycroft Review. Through my amendments, I will work with the Government to strengthen the Representation of the People Bill. Let’s get dirty money out of our politics.

Dirty money has had a free run at British politics for too long. But today, that's started to change. The Gvt has adopted the Rycroft Review in full: caps on overseas donations, profit-based tests for company donors, and stronger checks on the source of political money. This is genuine progress.

You've seen them on your high street. The vape shop with no customers. The barber's that's empty every time you walk past. The car wash doing a roaring trade in the rain. How do they survive? In a Westminster Hall debate last week, MP after MP asked exactly that.

📅 Today was due to be the UK's Countering Illicit Finance Summit. The Summit may have been delayed, but the threats posed by dirty money, money laundering and economic crime have not been. The next six months should be used to build an even stronger event.

💷 It's All 'Bout the Money - who has too much of it, where it hides, and how it buys influence... ✉️ Read our latest newsletter here: mailchi.mp/fpc/june-new...

🚨 🧵 1/6 NEW: Research from @transparencyuk.bsky.social finds that almost 1 in 6 members of the House of Lords holds a political advisory role in addition to their duties in parliament. www.transparency.org.uk/news/house-l...

The House of Lords has become a lobbying network for hire

Almost one in six peers holds a political advisory role that presents a significant lobbying risk

transparency.org.uk

The Illicit Finance Summit is coming. The Government must put it high on the political agenda, and set a date urgently. Here's what APPG members had to say 👇 @steffanaquarone.bsky.social @philbrickellmp.bsky.social @joepowell.bsky.social @elliechowns.bsky.social @rebeccalongbailey.com

Britain's high streets are under threat from organised crime. Across the country, legitimate businesses are being undercut by criminal operators using cash-intensive businesses to launder dirty money. @philbrickellmp.bsky.social set out the scale of the challenge and called for tougher action 👇

Fraud now accounts for more than 40% of all recorded crime. Yet too often economic crime is treated as a victimless offence. It isn’t. Last week, members of the APPG visited the City of London Police to hear about the challenges facing those on the frontline of tackling fraud and corruption.

🤠 𝑾𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 APPG member Baroness Hayter has brought forward a Bill that tries to deal with something most of us already suspect: too much of how government is influenced happens out of sight 👇

Baroness Hodge and Minister Jake Richards arrive in Guernsey today. The timing couldn't be more relevant; last week @thefinancelab.bsky.social released a shocking report report which revealed £393bn in dirty money flows annually through the UK and Crown Dependencies 👇 www.ft.com/content/7b35...

UK warns it could take action over crown dependencies’ lack of transparency

Government in fresh bid to persuade likes of Guernsey as well as overseas territories to go further in tackling illicit finance

ft.com

👍 1/3 We fully support this action from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to clamp down on Russian illicit finance and crypto networks. www.gov.uk/government/n...

UK cracks down on backdoor Russian sanctions evasion with tough new measures

Crypto and illicit finance networks exploited by Russia to circumvent UK sanctions are being targeted as the government ramps up pressure on Putin’s war machine to support Ukraine.

gov.uk

Have a read of my piece on the more than £300bn of illicit funds flowing through the UK each year and what we can do to tackle it 👇🏻

'Labour must show Britain is no longer open for dirty money' - LabourList

On dirty money, people want fairness. They want accountability. And they want to know that the rules are enforced.

labourlist.org

🚨 🧵 1/4 Alarming new report from our friends at Finance Innovation Lab, which finds that dirty money worth the equivalent of over 10% of our GDP flows through Britain every year. This includes illicit money linked to money laundering, corruption, financial crime, illegal trade and tax dodging.

Jesse Griffiths@jesselgriffiths.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our new report is (we think) 1st attempt to estimate scale of illicit financial flows thru the UK - £325bn p.a. www.theguardian.com/business/202... @suehawley.bsky.social @alexcobham.bsky.social @kathrynwestmore.bsky.social @faizashaheen.bsky.social @duncanhames.bsky.social @jemm-s.bsky.social

📺WATCH: Our former Chair @joepowell.bsky.social welcoming the Government's £30m crackdown on the organised crime destroying our High Streets. This is a real step forward - but to win back the beating heart of our communities, we urge the Govt to go even further 👇

🆕 👏 We're sorry to be losing @rachelblakemp.bsky.social as a Co-Chair of the APPG - but delighted at the reason - her appointment as Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

👑This week's King's Speech contains real opportunities to clean up British politics and tackle economic crime. But it also contains one glaring omission. A short thread 🧵

We're delighted that former APPG Chair @joepowell.bsky.social was invited to open Day 2 of the SFO's International Conference on Economic Crime.

📢 Today we’re launching the Voices For Transparency project – it explores how financial secrecy in British offshore jurisdictions has enabled corruption, wrongdoing and human rights abuses These are the human stories behind the hidden systems that protect wealth, power, and impunity

Under current rules, far too many dodgy lobbying practices are perfectly legal. Westminster's lobbying system is broken — and we're pushing the Government to fix it. Here's what needs to change 👇

🕐 Earlier in the week we highlighted Steff Aquarone's question on Overseas Territories beneficial ownership registers at FCDO questions. He wasn't alone — our Co-Chair Sir Andrew Mitchell MP pressed the same point 👇

"𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐠, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞."👇

We are proud to support the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition's day of action today to #StopSLAPPs. The law needs to protect those who speaking out against corruption. We are supporting the call for universal anti-SLAPP legislation to be included in the King's Speech.

Foreign money. Anonymous donors. Strongman tactics. Britain's democracy is under threat - here's how we fight back 👇

Reform UK's cryptocurrency donation portal is still live, despite the Government announcing hours ago that such donations will be banned with immediate effect until further notice.

👏 We welcome the publication of the Rycroft Review and the serious attention it gives to the threat of foreign financial interference in UK politics. We are also grateful to the Government for recognising the significant contribution our APPG has made to this debate.