Results 1–20 of 5000 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Margaret Hodge

Antisemitism in the UK (19 Feb 2024)

Margaret Hodge: I welcome the strong statements made by the Minister and the shadow Home Secretary. I hope that, in tackling the deep-seated antisemitism to which the hon. Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) referred, we can work in a united way across the House, and not seek to make cheap political points on any individual cases. We have had attacks on Jews in theatres in London; we have had attacks...

Death of Alexei Navalny (19 Feb 2024)

Margaret Hodge: I want to turn to the economic impact of the sanctions, which the Minister alluded to. A loophole in our sanctions regime means that countries such as China and India import Russian crude oil, process it and then sell it into the UK as refined oil. In 2023, we imported 5.2 million barrels of this oil. That means that we sent something like £141 million in tax revenue to the Kremlin’s war...

Holocaust Memorial Day (25 Jan 2024)

Margaret Hodge: I will not detain the House, but I echo the words of the Minister and the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) in saying that the House is at its best when we can all speak across the Chamber in unity on issues that are a million times more important than anything else we debate in the House through the year. I thank every Member of the House who has participated in the...

Holocaust Memorial Day (25 Jan 2024)

Margaret Hodge: I beg to move, That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day. I thank the right hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi)—who is not in the Chamber— the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) and the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for co-sponsoring the debate. Let me also pay tribute to two organisations, the Holocaust Memorial Day...

Holocaust Memorial Day (25 Jan 2024)

Margaret Hodge: I completely share that sentiment expressed by the hon. Gentleman. As I was saying, we are not as good as we proclaim to be. My grandfather did not feel welcome and I did not feel wanted as a nine-year-old girl. The asylum seekers who try to come here today face a similar hostile environment. They are told by leading Government politicians that they pose an “existential threat” to the...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: What has been great about this debate is that we mostly agree across the House. That has been the basis on which we have taken action down the years, and I am grateful for that. I want to acknowledge the teamwork that has gone on. The right hon. Members for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat) both played a key role in pursuing transparency in the...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I beg to move, That this House notes the implementation of public registers of beneficial ownership in the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies; believes that the Government needs to respect the will of Parliament and meet the implementation deadline at the end of 2023; encourages the Government to lay an Order in Council formally requiring the UK’s Overseas Territories to...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing that to our attention. Sadly, it is an issue not just of enforcement but of definition. I bet that the landlord in her constituency owns the properties through a trust, and there is no openness about beneficial ownership of trusts. She makes a very important point.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I thank the hon. Member for his support. I agree that it is partly about reputation and partly about avoiding tax, but it is also about indulging in economic crime, from money laundering through to the worst crimes that stain our country and our economy.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I thank my hon. Friend for his support—he is probably my oldest friend in the House; we go back many years—and I hope that the Government heard his urging.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: The right hon. Member makes a really important point, which I will come to later. He is right: this is a national security threat as well as a threat to our economy. The Government have yet to comply with the legislation by making an Order in Council to mandate compliance by the overseas territories. After discussions between the Crown dependencies and the right hon. Member for Sutton...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I have enormous respect and time for the hon. Member, but I have an opinion from a renowned KC that we sought at that time—I will come to it later—which contradicts entirely his point and says that we do have the constitutional right to legislate.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: Indeed. I would love for us to be able to do this in a consensual way; that would obviously be the best way to proceed. Sadly, we have been waiting for 10 years, and my patience has worn a little thin. Given the implications both for national security and for the economy, the time has come to say, “Enough is enough.” We should use the powers that we have.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I will. The hon. Member will know as well as I do that we are no longer a member of the European Union, so we are not bound by that finding. Why does all this matter? The epidemic of tax avoidance, tax evasion and economic crime flourishes in an environment of secrecy, and our overseas territories and Crown dependencies facilitate that secrecy. We know from the ever-growing number of leaks of...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: Yes. Sadly, London has become the jurisdiction of choice for too much of our dirty money. The all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax has been successful—albeit not as much as I would have liked—in achieving changes to economic crime legislation to challenge and start tackling that.

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: My hon. Friend is right. I have often said that it is not just this Government who have done that; the Labour Government, in their time, also deregulated to such an extent that they allowed London to become the centre of this activity. I do not feel that the Government are doing all that they can to try to turn that around. I await a future Labour Government, and I will watch Labour Ministers...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I am left wondering whether The Sunday Times would ever publish that—we shall see. Let me address the point made by the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill). In April 2019, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield and I sought legal advice about whether it would be constitutionally lawful for the UK Parliament to legislate to compel all Crown dependencies to...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: My hon. Friend makes an important point: those who suffer the most are the poorest in our community. One must remember that no tax is levied on all this illicit finance, so it does not fund the public services that we require. I would also point out to the Minister that a legitimate interest proviso does not meet the requirements of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018: the terms...

Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies ( 7 Dec 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I am not sure I can answer that, because I do not know whether they know, but there have been one or two instances where whistleblowers have come to see me—about Jersey, for example. It has been very difficult to find out and identify how much the Jersey authorities knew, and why or whether they took action on the information that is available. It would be wonderful if the right hon....

Autumn Statement Resolutions - Rates of Tobacco Products Duty (27 Nov 2023)

Margaret Hodge: I congratulate my new hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and I wish her well, but she arrives in difficult times, because in 30 years as an MP, I have never seen the country’s finances in such a mess. We have the highest taxes since records began, the highest public sector debt since the 1960s and inflation at a 41-year high, and average households will be £1,900 worse...


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