An anti-corruption campaigner has taken issue with a Coalition Government minister’s views on corruption and immigrants to the UK. Robert Barrington, the Executive Director of TI-UK, an arm of Transparency International, warned that corruption in the UK is increasing, and the risks of it getting worse are also increasing.
Reported in the Daily Telegraph, Dominic Grieve QC, the Attorney General, said ministers should “wake up” to the threat of corruption in public life, which he attributed to “minority communities”.
Barrington said in a blog on the TI website: “There have been several alarm bells in different areas – organised crime, prisons, politics, the City – and they need to be heard. It is vital that the Government accepts that corruption happens in the UK, and needs to be addressed.”Research tells us it is on the increase, and it will be easy to cast the blame elsewhere. If the Government is really serious about tackling UK corruption, it should do a proper assessment of where it happens, and take steps to improve systems to prevent it, not pick on individual targets as cases randomly come to light.”
Barrington summed up: “Whether you are a citizen of the UK, Pakistan, or anywhere else, you are far more likely to be a victim of corruption than a beneficiary. It is extraordinarily damaging to society and the economy and the lives of ordinary people. That is why most people loathe it around the world – and it has been a rallying cry on the streets from Russia to North Africa to Brazil. We are fortunate in the UK to live in a country where corruption is not endemic.”
For his blog in full visit the TI website.
