Labour party chair demands government investigate Geoffrey Cox allegations

Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party Chair, has written to Boris Johnson asking “whether Geoffrey Cox is a Caribbean-based barrister or a Conservative MP?”

Labour is calling for an urgent investigation into the former Attorney General working for a Caribbean tax haven during the height of the pandemic, despite the BVI government facing an ongoing UK Foreign Office inquiry into alleged corruption. Dodds writes: “It appears that your former Attorney General is profiting from advising an administration accused of corruption and tax avoidance.”

Dodds calls the matter “a question of leadership” for the Prime Minister and a question of priorities for the Conservatives, writing that “Sir Geoffrey’s behaviour means it looks like he’d rather get a tax haven off the hook than represent the interests of his constituents”.

Sir Geoffrey, the former attorney-general has received sharp criticism after it was revealed he had taken up a second job in the British Virgin Islands.

However deputy prime minister and justice secretary Dominic Raab defended his decision this morning, telling Times Radio that: “Having the former attorney general is a legitimate thing to do” in reference to Cox’s offering legal advice to the government of the British Virgin Islands as he has “got some knowledge of what’s going on”.

Due to lockdown rules, Cox was able to vote in parliament via proxy while spending weeks in the British Virgin Islands working for international law firm Withers.

Cox has spoken in one Commons’ debate since he was sacked as attorney general by Boris Johnson last year.