'Illicit finance and the role of professional enablers in the United Kingdom: are things finally changing?' with Andrew Mitchell & Dame Margaret Hodge

Past Event

Date
 24 May 2022, 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Location
 Oxford Martin School & Online
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Event Recording:

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting sanctions regime has shed light on the United Kingdom’s harbouring of illicit wealth from around the world.

It has also revealed the centrality of enablers in the legal and financial sectors in laundering oligarchs’ monies and reputations. As co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax, Andrew Mitchell and Margaret Hodge have been at the forefront of the UK’s fight against dirty money, illicit finance and money laundering.

In this event, Andrew Mitchell and Margaret Hodge will discuss with Ricardo Soares de Oliveira and John Heathershaw past attempts at curbing professional facilitators, the inadequacy of present regulations and the prospect of improvement through the upcoming Economic Crime Bill, among other ongoing efforts. Most pressingly, they will be asking: after a decade of signalling reform intent, is change really about to happen?

Hodge Margaret Dame

Dame Margaret Hodge
MP for Barking and Dagenham

Dame Margaret Hodge has been the MP for Barking and Dagenham since 1994. A member of the Labour Party, she previously served as Leader of Islington London Borough Council from 1982 to 1992. She has held a number of ministerial roles under the last Labour Government and served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee from 2010 to 2015.

Currently, she is chair of the APPG on anti-corruption and responsible tax, and campaigns for a clamp down on illicit finance and dirty money

Mitchell Andrew

Andrew Mitchell
MP for Sutton Coldfield

Andrew Mitchell has been the MP for Sutton Coldfield since 2001 and was previously MP for Gedling from 1987 to 1997. He served in Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2010 to 2012, and subsequently as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons. In 2017 he became a Senior Adviser to the African Development Bank. Andrew has extensive experience on development issues and is co-Chair of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax.

Heathershaw john

Professor John Heathershaw
Professor of International Relations, University of Exeter

John Heathershaw is Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter and, for 2021-22, a senior fellow of the British Academy. His research addresses the global politics of conflict, security, and development, especially with respect to post-Soviet Central Asia.

He is author of the books Post-Conflict Tajikistan (2009), and Dictators Without Borders (2017) and principal investigator of several major research projects on kleptocracy, political exiles, and conflict management.

Ricardo Soares De Oliveira

Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira
Director, Oxford Martin Programme on African Governance

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira is Professor of the International Politics of Africa at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Official Fellow of St Peter's College, and a Fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute, Berlin.

His research interests include African politics (particularly West and Central Africa), the geopolitics of energy and international political economy, especially in the fields of natural resource extraction, state decay and post-conflict reconstruction.