Britain’s new anti-corruption champion has a lot to do

Margaret Hodge will have a very full in-tray. Protecting British politics from dark money and foreign interference needs to be top of the pile.

Back in January, I wrote a newsletter entitled “the parable of Britain’s ‘anti-corruption champion’”. It was all about the Conservative government’s failure to appoint an anti-corruption tsar.

Tory MP John Penrose had resigned in June 2022, in protest at Boris Johnson’s lying over ‘partygate’. Yet, more than 18 months later he had not been replaced.

When I spoke to then Labour MP Margaret Hodge for my piece she was so incensed that she wrote a letter to Rishi Sunak demanding that the prime minister give a date for the appointment.

Well, now we finally have that date - and Britain finally has an anti-corruption champion. Margaret Hodge.

Hodge’s appointment today is well-timed: it’s international anti-corruption day, and the new appointee certainly knows a thing or two about dirty money and kleptocracy.

Before she was made a peer earlier this year, Hodge chaired the public accounts committee and then the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax.

Hodge has also been pushing for a change in the law to force British overseas territories to issue publicly available registers of beneficial ownership - so we could actually see who owns British Virgin Islands-registered companies like the one that donated tens of thousands to Robert Jenrick’s unsuccessful Tory leadership bid.

The appointment of an anti-corruption champion is long overdue. Announcing Hodge’s appointment today foreign secretary David Lammy also pledged to extend funding to the National Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit and introduced sanctions on key players in the illicit gold trade in southern Africa.

This is all good news. As Sue Hawley at Spotlight on Corruption said, “It’s brilliant to see a heavy-hitting campaigner like Baroness Hodge appointed as anti-corruption champion”, and the new money for international anti-corruption work is “a potential game changer”.

But announcements on their own are not enough. The anti-corruption champion must have the support needed to act, too.

Hodge’s main role will be to help drive development of a new government anti-corruption strategy and to act as an entry-point for anti-corruption issues in Parliament.

But, as Labour MP Joe Powell said today, “To succeed, it is essential that the anti-corruption champion is fully empowered to unite government, law enforcement, and civil society, ensuring no stone is left unturned in this critical mission.”

For years, Britain has talked about being a “world-leader in anti-corruption” while facilitating all manner of cronyism and clientelism, from VIP PPE contracts for party donors to selling seats in the Lords. This has to stop.

One place to start is political funding. As Transparency International recently reported, 10% of donations came from dubious dark money sources.

With no cap on donations, British politics is increasingly owned by the super-rich: in 2023, two-thirds of political donations came from just 19 mega donors who each gave more than £1 million.

And this is all before we even think about Elon Musk and the possibility of gargantuan gifts to Nigel Farage’s Reform.

Last week, Democracy for Sale launched a survey to ask our readers how you feel about money in politics, and whether you thought the current system of unlimited donations and myriad loopholes should be changed.

I’ve been blown away by the response: already more than 7,500 people have completed the survey, and while we haven’t analysed all the responses yet (don’t worry, we will!), it’s pretty clear you want change. (You can still give your views here.)

The responses so far are peppered with words like “corrupt” and “anti-democratic” and concerns about foreign interference and the failure of government to act.

This is serious. Big money has fuelled distrust in our politics. People feel democracy is for sale. And they’re not wrong.

After two years without an anti-corruption champion, Margaret Hodge will arrive to a very full in-tray. But protecting British politics from dark money and foreign interference needs to be at the top of the pile.