Push to crack down on foreign states’ influence over MPs’ cross-party groups

Standards committee calls for ban on APPGs accepting funding from foreign governments and review of parliamentary pass-holders

MPs should be banned from using foreign governments to fund parliamentary “special interest” groups, a committee has recommended as part of a crackdown on the influence of potentially hostile states in parliament.

At least two Gulf countries are said to have financially supported All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), while fears have been raised for years among security officials about the opaque nature of how the networks operate.