Lady Hodge made UK anti-corruption champion
After leading efforts to crack down on illicit finance as an MP, Jewish Labour veteran Margaret Hodge has been tasked with the revamped foreign office role
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Lady Margaret Hodge has been appointed as the UK’s new anti-corruption champion.
The Jewish parliamentarian said she felt “privileged and delighted to be able to work as the government’s champion, combating corruption and the illicit finance that flows from it, both at home and abroad”.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy has turned to Hodge, who has developed a strong record for campaigning against corruption, to boost government attempts to crackdown on global corruption activists impacting on the UK.
“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,” she added.
Hodge, the Labour MP for Barking from 1994 to 2024 and the Jewish Labour Movement’s parliamentary chair has shown no sign of slowing down her workload since entering in the Lords at the age of 80.
She had previously been one of the most outspoken critics of Jeremy Corbyn’s failure on antisemitism when he led Labour.
In a visit to the National Crime Agency with Hodge, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the Foreign Office would extend its funding support to the NCA’s International Corruption Unit (ICU) by up to £36m over five years.
It has frozen over £441m of assets related to international corruption since 2020.
Lammy added: “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.
“Take Syria, where Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power this weekend after decades of brutal suppression, financed in recent years by laundering the proceeds from the illegal Captagon trade abroad.
“This government will make the UK a hostile environment for the corrupt and their ill-gotten gains as we put national security as a foundation of our plan for change and decade of national renewal.”
The Foreign Office also said Hodge “will work with parliament, the private sector and civil society to help drive delivery of the government’s priorities to clamp down on corruption and the organised criminals who benefit from it, helping to deliver safer streets and secure borders”.
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