Financial Transparency: Overseas Territories

Jo Platt Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Jo Platt (Leigh and Atherton) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I begin by paying tribute to my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell) for his work in this House and outside it to combat fraud and corruption. His steadfast resolve is to be commended. I have probably wasted half my time saying that, but it needed saying.

As we have heard, financial secrecy in Britain’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies enables tax abuse, fraud and organised crime, draining billions from public coffers and weakening enforcement, but I shall talk about the impact that it has on our towns locally. In Leigh and Atherton and across our country, our high streets are being hollowed out by rogue traders using these opaque corporate structures. Dodgy vape shops, fake candy stores and unlicensed barbers are increasingly used to launder money, sell illicit goods and evade scrutiny. These businesses often phoenix overnight, reopening under new names to dodge enforcement. They damage the reputation of our town centres and erode public confidence.

That is why, like my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West, I want to highlight Operation Machinize, a multi-agency crackdown led by Greater Manchester police, co-ordinated by the NCA and supported by trading standards and our local authority teams. Across Greater Manchester, including Leigh, over 100 premises were targeted. The operation led to arrests, closure orders and the seizure of illegal vapes, illicit cigarettes and counterfeit goods. I thank all those involved.

Despite such action, the activity carries on and the authorities’ hands are tied. My office supported a raid in Leigh. It took over year to build the evidence and it was very clear, yet the business was reopened within an hour. That is why I have joined forces with my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) to launch a national campaign calling for stronger powers, better co-ordination and real accountability. Our communities deserve better.

Budget Resolutions

Jo Platt Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jo Platt (Leigh) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is great to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Thelma Walker).

In the build-up to last week’s Budget, I was pleased to hear speculation that it could end the last seven years of crippling austerity, and that, following Labour’s successful general election campaign, the Government might finally listen to the suffering up and down the country. Members can therefore imagine my surprise when the Chancellor sat down at the end of his speech having failed even to mention the words “social care” let alone to propose a funding settlement to tackle the crisis. He also failed to mention policing or counter-terrorism, which are under more pressure than ever.

There is still no plan, direction or leadership from this Government to strengthen our local economies, such as that of my constituency of Leigh. Therefore, once again, the burden of this Budget will end up falling on our hard-working public services, which will be asked to take on even more responsibility without the means to do so.

To put this matter into context, my constituency’s local authority of Wigan will have had £160 million of cuts to its budget by 2020, which means that key public services, on which our most vulnerable rely, have been withdrawn. Let me inform the hon. Member for Rugby (Mark Pawsey), who is no longer in his place, that coming up with alternatives is not just something for the Opposition. Local councils across the country have warned the Chancellor that they face a £5.8 billion funding gap over the next two years. That will mean that 60p in every pound that people pay in council tax could be spent solely on children and adult care services that councils provide. That leaves hardly anything for other vital services provided by local authorities, such as cleaning our streets, running leisure centres and keeping our public libraries open. But instead of funding our local authorities, the Chancellor only heaped on more responsibility without the ability to deliver.

This Government have long talked about the integration of health and social care, yet the Budget has done nothing to address the matter. The Government fail to recognise the huge impact of the underfunding of social care on our NHS, local authorities and communities. The same is happening in children’s services. The cuts to local authorities, Sure Start centres and early intervention and prevention grants, and the failing 30 hours’ free childcare policy are putting more vulnerable children at risk. The story of this Budget is therefore one of failure and neglect—failure to address the country’s long-term economic needs, to invest in our future and to fund our public services, which have been neglected by this Government for too long.

Britain deserved a bold, comprehensive and ambitious Budget that funded public services and protected local authorities. Instead, we got a threadbare Budget from a Government clinging to power, who choose to ignore the deep crisis we face in society. Those issues will not simply disappear. We must therefore confront them with the strength, resolve and determination that only a Labour Government can provide.