‘Baroness Mone fleecing taxpayer wasn’t one-off – right here is corruption reality’
Joe Powell, a leading Labour MP and a long-time corruption campaigner, writes for The Mirror about how corruption ‘hurts our high streets and wastes taxpayers’ money’
I spent over 10 years fighting corruption around the world before being elected to Parliament in 2024. From Ukraine to Nigeria I saw how corruption undermines democracy, steals taxpayer money and supports organised crime.
Sadly, in recent years Britain has slid down the international league table for corruption to a record low position. We can no longer ignore the problem in our own backyard.
In recent years our reputation has taken multiple hits – from the COVID contract VIP lane that funnelled cash to Tory donors, to lobbying scandals going as far as former Prime Minister David Cameron. Now we can add Reform’s embrace of anonymous crypto donations to the list.
If only Baroness Mone and PPE Medpro’s fleecing of the taxpayer was a one-off, but the truth is corruption is also hiding in plain sight on our high streets. Tax evasion and money laundering are driving the dodgy shops that have popped up across the country. Legitimate businesses who pay their taxes and workers properly are rightly angry.
READ MORE: PPE Medpro owes taxman £39m as Baroness Mone-linked company goes into administration
In my constituency streets of anonymous foreign owned properties are the perfect safe deposit box for the world’s kleptocrats and autocrats. They often sit empty, making our housing crisis worse and hollowing out our communities.
I decided to run for Parliament to help clean up this mess.
Populists like to tar everyone with the same corrupt brush, which it is why it is so important that this Government acts to restore trust in our politics by rooting out corruption wherever it is found.
I’m glad the Chancellor backed our crime fighting agencies in the budget to crack down on illicit activity on our high streets. This includes going after the company directors who disappear as soon as their tax bill lands.
Now the Government needs to take the next step to turn London from the dirty money capital of the world to the anti-corruption capital of the world. That means an ambitious new plan for action.
I’m delighted the Treasury have already announced sweeping reforms to how money laundering is regulated to stop accountants and lawyers handling dirty cash.
It’s also well overdue to end the well-trodden route of stashing dirty money in British tax havens, most notably the British Virgin Islands.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has announced Britain will host a global summit on illicit finance next year. Ensuring our own overseas territories are no longer the getaway vehicle for dirty money should be a top priority.
Corruption is not an abstract problem. It hurts our high streets, wastes taxpayers’ money and erodes trust in our politics. The Labour government is right to be cracking down.
