Former London MP Margaret Hodge has been appointed the UK’s anti-corruption champion to lead the crackdown on “dirty money” in Britain and overseas.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the appointment on a visit to the National Crime Agency on Monday.
Baroness Hodge, who was MP for Barking, has built up a reputation as a leading campaigner on corruption and illicit finance.
She was the hard-hitting chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee from 2010-2015 and of the APPG on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax.
The Foreign Office stressed that she has “shone a light on the impact of dirty money in the UK”.
Her appointment follows a high-profile career in politics which runs from being leader of Islington Council in the 1990s when she was mocked as being part of the “Loony Left”, to becoming an MP in 1983 and then several ministerial posts.
In her role as the new UK Anti-Corruption Champion, she will work with Parliament, the private sector and civil society to clamp down on corruption and organised crime gangs.
Mr Lammy said: “Corruption poses a real threat to the UK. It enables the activities of dictators, smugglers and organised criminals around the world, making our streets less safe and our borders less secure.
“This government will make the UK a hostile environment for the corrupt and their ill-gotten gains.”
He announced a further £36 million support over five years for the National Crime Agency’s international anti-corruption work.
The extra funding will go towards the NCA’s International Corruption Unit’s investigations of cross-border corruption, money laundering and bribery cases overseas.
The ICU has already frozen over £441 million of assets related to international corruption since 2020.
Baroness Hodge said: “After years of campaigning on the issue, I feel privileged and delighted to be able to work as the Government’s champion, combatting corruption and the illicit finance that flows from it, both at home and abroad.
“The time has now come to put an end to dither and delay. We must take determined and effective action and I look forward to playing my part in that work.”
The Foreign Office also announced further sanctions to tackle “dirty money” related to the illicit gold trade.
“Today’s sanctions will disrupt and deter the illicit gold trade by imposing asset freezes on five individuals, including infamous British-Kenyan gold smuggler Kamlesh Pattni and his enablers,” the FCDO said.
“Pattni smuggles illicit gold out of southern Africa for use in money laundering and was implicated in the Goldenberg corruption scandal in the 1990s.”
