Diane Abbott, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, speaking ahead of the Anti-Corruption Summit in London, said:

“The Tory government hosting an anti-corruption summit is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.

“The government is refusing to take meaningful action to close Britain’s constellation of tax havens, which together constitute the largest financial secrecy network in the world. By keeping them open the government runs the risk of being perceived as facilitating tax avoidance, corruption and crime.”

“As Labour has long been calling for, what is needed are public registers of beneficial ownership in Britain’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The Prime Minister used to agree. In 2014, he said he supported making company beneficial ownership information open to the public. But he has consistently failed to take real action, even in the wake of the Panama Papers leaks.

“The developing world loses three times more to tax havens than they receive each year from rich countries in aid. We talk a lot about aid dependence, but we should be talking a lot more about tax independence.”