Prime Minister urged to consider City sanctions for Putin allies with extra checks on money going through London clearing houses
The Prime Minister has been grilled by MPs over doing more to hurt Putin “and those who are suckling at the teat of the regime”.
Giving her regular update to the Liaison Committee, which is formed from the heads of other Commons committees, Theresa May was praised for her success in securing an unprecedented show of support from allies. As of this afternoon, the tally had risen to 24 countries expelling an estimated 117 people, excluding the UK’s measures to expel 23 undeclared intelligence officers last week.
But Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the Prime Minister to go further.
The Conservative MP said it was “hardly accidental timing” that Russia had recently issued bonds, which has gone towards refinancing the sanctioned VTB bank, as a way of circumventing those sanctions.
While May tried to dodge the question by saying she would write to the committee later about specific organisations, Tugendhat pushed her, saying it was a general point about “closing that loophole” used by Russian individuals, such as the City’s clearing houses.
“The point is, we are dealing here with a rogue regime… Surely addressing this regime through the financial interests of its kleptocratic presidency and those who are suckling at the teat of the Putin regime is exactly what we should be doing to close off this threat,” he said.
This is an issue he raised with foreign secretary Boris Johnson last week but without much progress.
May appeared more engaged, however, nodding throughout and saying work was “still ongoing” to address this.
She pointed to the Criminal Finance act and unexplained wealth orders as proof of a “number of steps” she has taken already. She also reiterated her point about Magnitsky amendments, which she first announced when she laid the blame for the Skripal attack a fortnight ago.
During the wide-ranging session, which also looked at fishing and Burma, May was also grilled by Julian Lewis, who heads up defence committee.
He said government spending on defence was “inadequate”, and that funding measures against new threats should not be at the expense of traditional threats “which haven’t gone away”.
Asked by Damian Collins whether Mark Zuckerberg should appear before MPs – following his snub revealed earlier today – May demurred, saying: “Mr Zuckerberg will decide for himself,” but expressing her hope that “Facebook will recognise why this is so significant”.