By Jonathan Walker From Chronicle Live

County Durham MP Helen Goodman backs new law making it easier to discover who owns businesses

A Government climbdown on tax havens and money laundering has been welcomed by a Labour MP.

Helen Goodman, Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, said: “The level of corruption is frightening, so to win over the Government and change the law is a huge step towards a fairer society.”

The Government has accepted proposed changes to the law that will force British oversea territories such as the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands to reveal the true owners of companies.

It came after former ministers Dame Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP, and Andrew Mitchell, a Conservative, teamed up to propose that offshore tax havens publish public registers revealing the true owners of companies.

They backed an amendment to the Sanctions and Anti-Money-Landering Bill, which was initially opposed by the Government.

Facing the prospect of defeat in a House of Commons vote, Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan announced that the Government would accept the proposal.

Ms Goodman was part of the Labour team fighting for new laws relating to money laundering in her role as a shadow minister.

She said: “The UK is losing out on £15-20 billion from money laundering every year. That is a phenomenal amount of money for our schools and hospitals to be missing.

“The effects of the lack of transparency are not felt just in London, but in the North East and all over the UK as well. We saw this when Offshore Group Newcastle (OGN) Ltd, an engineering company once operating a 465,000 square foot site in Wallsend and employing up to 7,000 within the supply chain, went into administration and work in the North East was left unfinished.

“OGN is owned by a parent company based in the secrecy of the British Virgin Islands, with Russian business Alexander Temerko at the helm.”

IMAGE:

Helen Goodman (Image: PA Wire)

For more on this story go to: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/government-crackdown-frightening-tax-havens-14636192