A cross-party manifesto launched today urges the next government to commit to close "loopholes" in UK anti-corruption laws to ensure the nation shakes off a growing reputation as a haven for dirty money.

Albeit powerless to enact legislation, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax, which is among more than 750 such APPGs in Westminster, seeks to add pressure to force legislation which would tighten up corporate law.

The APPG said the winner of the next election would have a "unique chance for global leadership" on tackling economic crime.

The manifesto, jointly launched with the APPG on Fair Business Banking, said Putin's war on Ukraine has "put the UK's dirty money culture firmly under the spotlight" and that up until then "successive governments were seemingly comfortable with Russian oligarchs, kleptocrats and international criminals using the UK as a haven to launder, hide and then spend their ill- gotten gains".

The group wants government action to progress two Economic Crime Acts that were brought in in 2022 and 2023 to tackle economic crime.

Dame Margaret Hodge, APPG Chair, said: "We need greater transparency so that criminals can no longer hide their dirty money behind trusts, shell companies, or in our offshore tax havens."

She added: "We need smart regulation that is not full of loopholes that bad actors will exploit. We must hold professional enablers to account for facilitating, colluding - and profiting from, the flow of dirty cash. We must urgently toughen up our enforcement agencies, or deep-pocketed oligarchs and criminals will continue to operate unchallenged. And we need proper accountability to stop dirty money from seeping into our politics, and into British democratic and cultural institutions.

But while the MPs acknowledged progress in recent years, including the passage of two Economic Crime Acts, they said there were still "a long way to go before the UK can stem the flow of dirty money".

Significantly, current "loopholes" allow owners to "hide" behind trusts and the APPG wants that issue tackled by ensuring the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies bring in public registers of company ownership.

It's also calling for a tightening of anti-money laundering regulations, finding ways to legally seize frozen assets, and beefed-up resources for enforcement through reinvesting fines in an economic crime-fighting fund.

Conservative MP Nigel Mills, co-chairs of the APPG, added: "Economic crime is corrosive, and it impacts all of our daily lives.Honest people and businesses are being undercut by those not paying their fair share, while fraudsters and money launderers use and abuse the UK to aid and abet all manner of crimes."

He said: "If we can deliver on this revolutionary manifesto, then we can once again proudly say that Britain is 'open for business'."

● All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal, cross-party groups which have no official status within Parliament. They are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords, though many choose to involve individuals and organisations from outside Parliament in their administration and activities. As of 2022, there were 755 in Westminster. All are automatically dissolved at the end of an administration.