Margaret Hodge named new anti-corruption champion

Labour peer Dame Margaret Hodge, a long-time campaigner on corruption and illicit finance, has been appointed as the Prime Minister’s new anti-corruption champion.

Her appointment came as the Foreign Secretary announced up to £36 million in support for the National Crime Agency’s international corruption unit over five years.

Baroness Hodge of Barking will work with Parliament, the private sector and civil society to clamp down on corruption and organised crime in the UK and overseas, the Foreign Office said.

Dame Margaret said: “After years of campaigning on the issue, I feel privileged and delighted to be able to work as the Government’s champion, combatting corruption and the illicit finance that flows from it, both at home and abroad.

“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.”

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the Government is working to make the UK a “hostile environment for the corrupt and their ill-gotten gains”.