Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty admitted a number "have not gone far enough" — but there are still no firm deadlines for introducing beneficial ownership registers.

We need concrete commitments on beneficial ownership registers, not more warm words.

MP @steffanaquarone.bsky.social laid down a stark warning at this week's Foreign Office questions: Britain cannot credibly convene the Global Illicit Finance Summit while its own Overseas Territories remain havens for dirty money.

"𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐠, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞."👇

We are proud to support the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition's day of action today to #StopSLAPPs. The law needs to protect those who speaking out against corruption.

We are supporting the call for universal anti-SLAPP legislation to be included in the King's Speech.

Foreign money. Anonymous donors. Strongman tactics. Britain's democracy is under threat - here's how we fight back 👇

Reform UK's cryptocurrency donation portal is still live, despite the Government announcing hours ago that such donations will be banned with immediate effect until further notice.

And, in order to restore trust in politics and reduce the risks dependency on an increasingly small number of mega donors, caps should apply to large individual donations across the board, not just to overseas voters.

Read the report here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c29f...

There are serious and welcome proposals. But the Government should go further still.

A moratorium on crypto donations is a good first step, but ultimately the opaque nature of cryptoassets means they will always be high risk for foreign interference. Only a permanent ban would end this risk.

👏 We welcome the publication of the Rycroft Review and the serious attention it gives to the threat of foreign financial interference in UK politics.

We are also grateful to the Government for recognising the significant contribution our APPG has made to this debate.

If the report includes credible proposals - like banning cryptocurrency donations or introducing caps on large donations - they should be taken seriously and acted on.

This is an important opportunity to strengthen our political system against hostile influence from abroad, and it should be seized.

🆕 Today the Government will publish the Rycroft review into foreign interference in UK politics.

We don’t yet know what it will recommend. But commissioning the review was the right step, and reflects a clear recognition that our democracy must keep pace with evolving threats 👇

Fraud is now the most common crime in our country. More than 4 million offences. 45% of all crime. 1/14 affected. And £14 billion drained from our economy.

As @philbrickellmp.bsky.social explains, we welcome the new Fraud Strategy - read it here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69ae77...

Ethics and Integrity Commission to review lobbying, disclosure and access to government The Prime Minister has today asked the Ethics and Integrity Commission to carry out a review into lobbying, disclosure and access to government.

👏 Today’s announcement is a welcome step from the PM. We're pleased to see the Government moving in the right direction on driving up standards in public life.

The APPG looks forward to engaging with the Ethics and Integrity Commission as they undertake this review.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

But ambition must now be matched with resources. That means creating a ring-fenced Economic Crime Fighting Fund to re-invest more of the proceeds of crime and give enforcement agencies the sustained capacity they need to go after criminals properly.

🤝Stronger international cooperation
💻Action on telecoms and online platforms
🆘Better support for victims
📜Further reforms to stop the abuse of company structures

👮 Fraud is now the most common crime in the country, causing huge harm to victims, businesses and costing the wider economy £15 billion a year.

So we welcome the Government’s new Fraud Strategy, particularly the steps that align with our long-standing asks 👇

So long as these registers stay out of reach of journalists and investigators, kleptocrats and criminals will keep exploiting our financial system to launder dirty money.

🔥"𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑼𝒌𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒚, 𝑷𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒏’𝒔 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏-𝒑𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒕𝒔, 𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝑽𝑰"

Good to see @steffanaquarone.bsky.social holding the OT's to account for their ongoing failure to introduce public beneficial ownership registers 👇

We’ve campaigned for it to be scrapped, and the Government has now announced it will be removed through the upcoming Representation of the People Bill.

This was one of our three core asks for electoral reform. Next: ban cryptocurrency donations, and cap big-money donations.

🚨 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐘 🚨

The referee is back to refereeing.

For too long, the Strategy and Policy Statement gave Ministers undue influence over the Electoral Commission - letting politicians lean on the body meant to police elections 👇

Our asks are simple 👇

🏛️ Real independence and real teeth for the Electoral Commission
💷 A hard limit on big donations
💻 A ban on crypto donations

Political power in Britain should be earned, not bought.

A hard truth: a democracy can be stolen without anyone taking away a single vote.

Today, the Representation of the People Bill comes before the House. The UK must close the loopholes that let dirty money and foreign interference shape our politics unseen.

👍 We fully support growing calls from journalists and campaigners to ban SLAPP lawsuits in the next King's Speech.

These vexatious, anti-democratic weapons of lawfare - used to silence criticism by everyone from Russian warlords to rapists - have absolutely no place in a free and fair democracy.

6/ 🫂 This much-anticipated bill is a golden opportunity to start restoring people's trust in how UK democracy operates.

Follow us ☝️ for more updates as it progresses through Parliament.

5/ 👍 The proof will be in the pudding - we welcome increased powers for the Electoral Commission, but it needs to be fully independent if it's to be truly effective.

🪙 And the potential secrecy afforded by crypto means the only true safeguard is a full ban on all such political donations.

4/ 🏛️ The Govt's Security Minister @danjarvismp.bsky.social pledged that the Bill will "further strengthen safeguards against covert political funding" by - amongst other things - increasing the powers of the Electoral Commission and safeguarding against the potential use of crypto by foreign actors.

3/ 🗣️ Meanwhile @alexsobel.co.uk , Chair of our friends at the APPG on Fair Elections and the APPG on Ukraine, recommended a raft of measures for the Bill.

❌ These include a ban on all overseas donations and tighter rules around disinformation.

2/ ⚖️ While APPG member @joepowell.bsky.social pointed to the way Russian oligarchs can use our own systems against us.

😷 The now-sanctioned Roman Abramovich used a SLAPP lawsuit to try to gag a journalist from publishing details of his relationship with President Putin.

🚨📽️🧵 1/ Today, the Govt launches its Representation of the People Bill (previous working title: The Elections Bill).

One of the core aims of the Bill is to prevent foreign interference in UK democracy.

Earlier this week, our Chair @philbrickellmp.bsky.social said we need to ban crypto donations...

🪙 3/ ...And embracing the upcoming Elections Bill to protect us from foreign interference and the distorting effects of mega donor political financing.

This much-anticipated bill is a golden opportunity to start restoring people's trust in how UK democracy operates.

Follow us ☝️ for more updates.