A new leadership team has been appointed to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services following the annual general meeting at Portcullis House, Westminster.
Members of both houses met on December 10 to elect officers and agree the group’s priorities for the coming year – a year they warn will be crucial to restoring confidence in Britain’s financial system.
Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell has been confirmed as the new chair of the APPG, supported by a cross-party group of deputy chairs: Sarah Bool MP, Lord Davies of Brixton and Ben Lake MP. Together they form one of the most politically diverse leadership teams in Westminster dedicated to financial reform.
Accepting the role, McDonnell said he was honored to lead the group at a “critical juncture” for financial regulation in the UK. He stressed that victims of investment fraud and regulatory failures “deserve justice, not excuses,” adding: “We will not allow a race to the bottom on regulation.”
He argued that consumer protection should not be seen as a brake on growth but as the “foundation of a financial system that works in the public interest” and promised that the APPG would hold regulators and industry to account while working with parliamentarians, civil society groups and trade associations.
“We are interested in working with any company that wants to contribute to the prosperity of the financial sector by best serving society,” he said, adding that the APPG is already preparing its policy agenda for 2026.
Deputy leader Sarah Bool said that while the Conservatives believe in free markets, those markets “must also be fair” and warned that widespread fraud and regulatory gaps had damaged public trust and undermined the UK’s financial reputation.
Lord Davies of Brixton highlighted the serious personal consequences of misconduct, saying financial fraud “destroys real lives, pensions are stolen, homes are lost, future prospects are destroyed”. He vowed to continue to challenge conflicts of interest and advocate for ordinary families.
Ben Lake MP highlighted the devastation felt by communities across Wales and the UK, pointing to small businesses ruined by banking scandals and individuals who tragically took their own lives after losing their life savings to fraud. “These are not abstract political issues, they affect people in every constituency,” he said.
The AGM reaffirmed the central theme of the APPG – that strong consumer protection and strict enforcement are not an obstacle to economic success, but are essential to it.
The group remains deeply concerned about what it calls a growing “trust deficit” in the UK, warning that weak supervision and enforcement is discouraging public participation in financial markets, damaging the city’s international reputation and undermining systemic stability.
Their investigative work in 2025, including two major parliamentary summits and a high-profile report investigating the Financial Conduct Authority, will feed into their approach in 2026.
The APPG confirmed that it will continue to serve as a platform for dialogue between victims, regulators, parliamentarians, financial companies and civil society. A program of hearings, evidence collection and political engagement is already planned for the coming year.
The group operates strictly non-commercially. The Secretariat is run entirely on a volunteer basis by the Transparency Task Force, a certified social enterprise, and ensures that its work remains “free from undue influence and firmly rooted in the public interest.”
The group’s purpose is to advocate for victims of financial misconduct and fraud and to advance reforms that create a fair and trustworthy financial system. It operates under the rules of the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and does not receive parliamentary funding.
