With the UK going to the polls in a general election on 4 July, all polls are pointing to a Labour government. Economic crime is likely to be very high on Sir Keir Starmer’s agenda. In fact, seeing the UK as a haven for dirty money has been one of the guiding principles of Labour throughout the last 14 years of opposition.

If Labour form the next government, economic crime is likely to form the backbone of initial legislation given the unending criticism of the UK’s role in the ‘global laundromat,’ which London was called by shadow foreign secretary David Lammy.

If the poll predictions are correct and Labour forms the government after the general election on 4 July, one key area for change will be corporate governance. We’re already expecting a raft of new compliance regulations to fight economic crime and fraud, but Labour have pledged to go further and reform the operation of companies themselves.

The Conservative government had pledged to shake up the audit and corporate governance in the wake of various corporate scandals, such as those involving coffee shop chain Patisserie Valerie and contractor Carillion. A report by Sir John Kingman in 2018 outlined over 80 recommendations to review corporate governance. Chief among these was to replace the Financial Reporting Council with a much more powerful boardroom watchdog, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA), and tighten regulation on hundreds of more private companies as ‘public interest entities.’

The polls are predicting a landslide victory for the Labour Party at the general election on 4 July, 2024. If the polls hold firm, then within a hundred days, a far-reaching Employment Rights Bill will be introduced to parliament. 

Called the “New Deal for Working People,” it will introduce rights for day one for all workers, implement work-life balance rules, increase and strengthen statutory sick pay and remove the waiting limit and lower earnings threshold, move towards a single status for workers and employees, and crack down on the gig economy, Self-employed people and contractors will have new rights to a written contract, late payments and be covered by health and safety protections. Zero hours contracts will be banned, more notice for changes to shifts or rotas, more action on the gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps, including a requirement for larger firms to develop, publish and implement action plans. There will be more rights to collective bargaining and redundancy rights, and the time limit for an employment claim will be increased from three to six months. Employment tribunals will be reformed to provide quicker and more effective resolutions.