
On 24 January Lord Theodore Agnew, the minister in the Treasury and Cabinet Office with responsibility for counter-fraud and cross-government efficiency, unexpectedly resigned citing for cause the government’s ‘lamentable’ oversight of the Covid loans schemes and ministers ‘foolishly’ shelving plans to introduce a new economic crime bill in the next parliamentary session. This prompted MPs to debate the urgent need to reform the allegedly weak and outdated legislation that, according to them, has turned the City of London into a haven for illicit financial flows from across the world.