The Russian invasion of Ukraine revealed the extent of dirty money within the UK economy. The UK has become one of the world’s foremost centres of money laundering and dirty money, with the City of London being at the heart of this. The UK’s National Crime Agency has confirmed that hundreds of billions are laundered through the UK every year, costing the country £100 billion per annum. While an Economic Crime Bill has recently been passed by the Government, it has not gone anywhere near far enough to end the industrial scale money laundering, tax avoidance and prevalence of dirty money within the UK economy.

Action is needed now to end the UK’s ‘laundromat’ status and to create a fair tax system, which properly funds our public services. The Co-operative Party will be working to include new provisions in the upcoming second Economic Crime Bill to help end the dirty money crisis. We are calling for greater powers for Companies House, so that they can effectively monitor and investigate companies suspected of wrongdoing and take action against them. Improving the money laundering supervision regime would also work as a deterrent and act against facilitators of dirty money in the banking, legal and accounting sectors. Promoting transparency within the system will be crucial to ending the influence and prevalence of dirty money throughout the UK economy and financial system.

Join us at 5.30pm, Tuesday 27^th September at the Labour Party Annual Conference, as we discuss how we can put an end to dirty money and tax avoidance in the UK economy. We will hear from James Murray MP, Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury; Mary Patel of the Fair Tax Foundation and Robert Palmer of Tax Justice UK. The event will take place in Hall 2, Room 3 of the ACC Liverpool – we hope you can join us for this timely event!