City minister: Work is taking place “across Whitehall” on dirty money

City minister John Glen has told MPs that work is taking place "across Whitehall" to tackle dirty money coming through London, in the wake of a damning report published yesterday.

The Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Tom Tugendhat, claimed the government was putting national security at risk by allowing “kleptocrats and human rights abusers to use the City of London to launder their ill-gotten funds to circumvent sanctions”.

Responding to a question about the report today, Glen told the Commons that alongside previous action there was "work underway across Whitehall to examine what further steps are necessary".

The Salisbury MP said he was "eager that we go as far as we can, but we must do so in ways that are consistent with our values" noting that the government "stands by the rule of law – we don't do random confiscations".

The Treasury did not respond to a request for further information about the type of work being carried out, however yesterday the Prime Minister's spokesman said the government was "taking another look" at the tier one visa, used by many Russian oligarchs.

This work was started following the nerve agent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury two months ago.

During the same session, Glen stressed the government would "freeze Russian state assets where we have evidence to believe they may be used to threaten the lives of UK nationals and residents", and would back the National Crime Agency in dealing with "serious criminals and corrupt elites".

"As someone who has experienced this directly in my constituency in recent months, I stand by that statement – there is no place for these people and their money in our country," he said.

But shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was "not good enough", noting that the overseas register of interest had been promised in 2015 and was still three years away from being deployed.

"The government is letting crooks, tax avoiders and money launderers off the hook yet again," he said.

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