Boris Johnson vows to strengthen the Government’s crackdown on ‘dirty’ Russian cash as furious MPs say ministers should have acted long before the Ukraine crisis to protect the UK from a ‘potential tsunami of questionable money’

• Boris Johnson said UK will strengthen measures to tackle ‘dirty’ Russian money
• He rejected claims from MPs that Government has not done enough on the issue
• MPs said measures should have been strengthened long before Ukraine crisis 

Boris Johnson today promised to strengthen the Government’s crackdown on ‘dirty’ Russian cash as MPs said more action should have been taken long before the current Ukraine crisis. 

The Prime Minister rejected claims that the Government had not done enough to address the issue in the past and said the UK has ‘done a huge amount on dirty money’. 

But he said ‘what we want to do is strengthen now the package that we have, strengthen the measures we have, against potential ill-gotten Russian money’. 

MPs said tougher rules should have been put in place before the Ukraine crisis to protect the UK against a ‘potential tsunami of questionable money’. 

The Prime Minister rejected claims that the Government had not done enough to address the issue in the past and said the UK has ‘done a huge amount on dirty money’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of plotting an invasion of Ukraine. He is pictured today in Moscow

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced earlier this month that the UK was extending its sanctions regime in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. 

A tougher package of sanctions has been prepared which would be rolled out if Russian President Vladimir Putin goes ahead with a feared invasion. 

Currently the UK can only sanction people specifically linked to the destabilisation of Ukraine but the new approach will allow a broader range of individuals and businesses to be targeted.

Mr Johnson today vowed to bring forward a new Economic Crime Bill to further strengthen rules and to tackle ‘dirty’ money invested in the UK. 

He promised to ‘open up the Matryoshka doll’ to find out who owns companies and properties operating domestically.  

Mr Johnson was told following a COBRA meeting, held to discuss the Ukraine crisis, that some Tory MPs believe the Government has not done enough to stop the flow of ‘dirty’ money into the UK.    

Asked if the Economic Crime Bill will be included in the next Queen’s Speech, Mr Johnson said: ‘I don’t think that it’s fair to say the UK hasn’t done a huge amount on dirty money, whether it is from Russia or anywhere else.

‘Actually globally we have been out in the lead in tackling global corruption in tracing the sources of ill-gotten gains.’

He continued: ‘But what we want to do is strengthen now the package that we have, strengthen the measures we have against potential ill-gotten Russian money, whether here or anywhere for which we have responsibility, with new measures that will hit the companies and concerns that I have talked about.

‘But also open up the Matryoshka doll, if you like, so that we see who really owns the companies that we are talking about, who really owns the properties that we are talking about.

‘Those measures, yes, we will be bringing forward from the Economic Crime Bill.’

The PM signalled that the Bill would be included in the next Queen’s Speech.

Tory MP Bob Seely, a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FAC), said Britain was ‘a decade behind the times’ on the threat posed by Russian financial influence.

He welcomed Mr Johnson’s announcement and said the move could act as a ‘subtle containment policy’ when it came to dealing with Moscow.

The Isle of Wight MP said: ‘On Russia, we have known about this problem for years.

‘The problem is that the front line with Ukraine is the border, the front line with Germany is the gas pipeline – and the front line with the UK is the City of London.

‘We need to be wiser about how the Putin regime acts and the potential threat to our institutions and values, and how we can protect them against a potential tsunami of questionable money.’  

Tom Tugendhat, the Tory chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said it was time to clean out money from British politics that had originated in Russia.

‘Frankly, get it out and get it out now,’ he told Times Radio.

MPs on both sides of the House of Commons agreed that the changes being proposed in the Government’s economic crime legislation had been needed well before the crisis with Ukraine developed.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is also a member of the committee, said: ‘This should have been in place before this whole saga, not after. Talk about the horse having bolted.’         

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