London’s “dirty money problem” would be tackled with a new transatlantic anti-corruption council under a Labour government, the shadow foreign secretary vowed on Tuesday.
David Lammy said money laundering had turned the capital’s properties into the “bitcoins of kleptocrats”, pricing nurses, teachers and other key workers out of their homes.
He pledged to develop a strategy to “fight kleptocracy” with EU and Five Eyes leaders.
“Transnational crime is an area that provides the perfect example of where domestic and foreign policy meet,” Mr Lammy said.
“Dirty money from Russia and other authoritarian states has been a stain on London for too long.
“Labour is determined to end our nation’s dirty money problem, working in partnership with international allies to generate a clean bill of health.”
Between 2000 and October 2019 more than 900 UK companies were involved in 89 cases of corruption and money laundering, amounting to £137 billion of economic damage, research by Transparency International UK found.
The Government has outlined its measures to drive dirty money out of the UK and tackle illegal activity in its Economic Crime Bill.
The legislation, currently making its way through the House of Lords, would increase the powers of Companies House to root out illegitimate businesses and ban UK companies from being controlled by opaque offshore firms.
