Mercy Muroki: The age of letting dirty money from overseas corrupt our culture must come to an end

We are at a crossroads. We need to start thinking about how dirty money from corrupt, authoritarian states is infiltrating our economy, our institutions, our culture.

What is happening with Russia at the moment makes for the perfect window of opportunity.In 2020, a joint Home Office and Treasury report noted: "The UK continues to see a significant volume of Russian, or Russian-linked illicit finance channelled through the UK economy".

In fact, the Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee said this in 2020, and I quote: "Russian influence in the UK is 'the new normal', and there a lot of Russians with very close links to Putin who are well integrated into the UK business and social scene, and accepted because of their wealth."

Those who have the power have made it easier over time for illicit money from overseas to infiltrate the country and cosied up to dodgy dictators and their chums. And this is not a left/right problem. This transcends party politics.And it has left Britain, outmanoeuvred, over-reliant on suspicious wealth, at the mercy of autocrats.

And when it comes to what's happening right now with Russia, it's all well and good the government slapping sanctions on Russian oligarchs as a response to Putin's provocations – but we really need to have a wider conversation about the price we are willing to pay when we do deals with the devil.

Take the Chinese Communist Party. That regime is unreservedly committing crimes against humanity - right now - today. So much so that last April, the House of Commons declared for the first time that 'genocide' is taking place against Uyghurs and other minorities in north-west China.

This includes forced detention, torture, and forced contraception upon Uyghur women, to name a few.

Meanwhile, our much revered universities continue to take tens of millions in Chinese money. A group of Conservative backbenchers last year uncovered that our top universities accepted more than £40 million in funding from Chinese firms, some with direct links to the Chinese Communist Party regime.

Some of our universities have even embarked on joint ventures with institutions in China. And among those institutions, are Chinese universities which make it mandatory for students to study the philosophy of Chairman Mao – A man directly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, yet somehow admired by some of the left.

I mean, remember when Dianne Abbott, who was once literally the Shadow Home Secretary of the United Kingdom, said that Mao did more harm than good? Madness.

In fact, just this morning, The Times is reporting that academics are self-censoring to avoid causing offence to students from authoritarian states such as China, according to a new report.

Our political, academic, and business elites want to have their cake and eat it. They talk the talk on espousing values of freedom, democracy, and human dignity, yet turn the other way when doing deals with the nations who pose the biggest global threat to those same values.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader, put it succinctly in a piece in The Telegraph from this week: he says "When future generations look back, what will they make of this bizarre paradox in which we argue passionately about past atrocities while ignoring those occurring live, before our eyes?"

Those in power need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

The age of letting dirty money from overseas corrupt our culture must – for all our sakes – come to an end.