Our letter to the new Deputy Prime Minister: continue your leadership on the campaign to tackle illicit finance

11th September 2025

The Rt Hon David Lammy MP
Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Dear Deputy Prime Minister,

We write to you as a coalition of the UK and the world’s leading experts on tackling illicit finance, to congratulate you on your appointment as Deputy Prime Minister and to thank you for the vision and leadership you demonstrated at the Foreign Office in tackling illicit finance. Your commitment to this agenda has set the UK on the brink of achieving global impact, and we urge you to maintain this focus in your new capacity.

With foundations firmly established, cross-government backing secured, cross-party support evident, and both civil society and private sector stakeholders fully engaged, maintaining focus on illicit finance should be a straightforward decision that showcases the government's ability to deliver tangible results on priority issues.

But your departure from the Foreign Office creates a real risk that the substantial impact you have achieved will be lost without your continued driving of this agenda. The momentum you built must not be allowed to dissipate.

We are also writing to the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper, urging her to maintain strategic priority for countering illicit finance within UK foreign policy and to confirm commitment to the planned Summit on Countering Illicit Finance next year, and to the Prime Minister, asking him to enable you to continue driving this agenda, bringing cross-government political leadership on illicit finance.

We respectfully urge you to use your new position to continue leading your campaign and Summit, driving cross-government engagement and achieving even greater impact on illicit finance than was possible from the Foreign Office alone.

We also note the significant potential for the Secretary of State for Justice to contribute to anti-illicit finance efforts and the forthcoming Anti-Corruption Strategy. We look forward to supporting your efforts in key Ministry of Justice roles including liaising with the Crown Dependencies, cross-border collaboration on financial investigations and asset recovery, the role of professional enablers in the legal profession, and the use of UK courts to advance unfair SLAPPs to dampen investigations into economic crimes.

Your leadership on illicit finance has been transformational. In your new role, you have the opportunity not just to maintain this progress and secure your legacy on illicit finance, but also to amplify this across government, securing ambitious domestic delivery that the planned Summit can leverage internationally.

We stand ready to support you in this vital work and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we can best contribute to continued success.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Lovett, Executive Director, United Kingdom, Middle East & Asia Pacific, ONE
Aidan Larkin, Co-Founder, AssetReality
Alex Jacobs, Executive Director, Joffe Charitable Trust
Alyona Vandysheva, General Director of Transparency International Russia (in exile)
Blair Glencorse, Chief Executive, Accountability Lab
Dan Haberly, Associate Professor, University of Sussex
David Lewis, former Executive Head of the Financial Action Task Force
David Szakonyi and Michael Hornsby, Co-Directors, Anti-Corruption Data Collective
Dawn Alford, Chief Executive, Society of Editors
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy, Transparency International UK
Elizabeth David-Barrett, Director, Centre for the Study of Corruption, University of Sussex
Elspeth Berry, Associate Professor, Nottingham Law School, and founder of the Partnership, LLP and LLC Law Academic Forum
Franz Wild, Editor in Chief, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Gary Kalman, Executive Director, Transparency International U.S.
Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership and Co-Chair of the UK Anti Corruption Coalition
Iain Armstrong, Global Regulatory Affairs Practice Lead, ComplyAdvantage
Ian Gary, Executive Director, FACT Coalition
James Mather, Barrister, Searle Court Chambers
Jamie Drummond, Founder, Sharing Strategies and Co-Founder, ONE Campaign
Jodi Vittori, Founder, Anti-Corruption Advocacy Network (ACAN)
John Cusack, former Chair of the Wolfsberg Group
John Heathershaw, University of Exeter, Principal Investigator, ACE Project
Jonathan Draper, Director of Fraud Solutions, FNA
Matti Kohonen, Executive Director, Financial Transparency Coalition
Mike Haley, Chief Executive, CIFAS
Nate Sibley, Fellow and Director, Kleptocracy Initiative, Hudson Institute
Professor Nic Ryder, Cardiff University
Nick Lewis OBE, Standard Chartered Bank
Dr Nikhil Kalyanpur, London School of Economics
Nina Cresswell, member of UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition
Paul Maassen, Chief of Global Programs, Open Government Partnership
Phil Mason, Independent Expert on Anti Corruption
Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Sciences Po and University of Oxford
Rupert Skilbeck, Director, REDRESS
Sara Carnegie, Barrister
Sheila Masinde, Executive Director, Transparency International Kenya
Susan Coughtrie, Executive Director, Foreign Policy Centre, and Co-Chair, UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition
Susan Hawley, Executive Director, Spotlight on Corruption and Co-Chair of the UK Anti Corruption Coalition
Thomas Mayne, University of Exeter and former Visiting Fellow, Chatham House
Thom Townsend, Executive Director, Open Ownership
Tom Cardamone, President & CEO, Global Financial Integrity
Tom Keatinge, Director, Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI