The UK opposition urged Prime Minister Theresa May’s government to open an inquiry after the publishing of  leaked information showing the Azerbaijani leadership made covert payments from 2012 to 2014 through a network of opaque British companies, The Guardian reported.

Tim Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader, led calls for an inquiry.

“Now is the time to wash some fairly dirty laundry in public and find out exactly who paid money to whom and why,” he said. “We need a full investigation to see that dirty money has not been used to buy influence in the UK. The Azerbaijani government is guilty of systematic human rights abuses and it would appear the regime has been making payments on an industrial scale.”

The chair of the all-party parliamentary group for responsible tax, Margaret Hodge calls for more transparency.  

“It would seem that Britain and British overseas territories are facilitating alleged corrupt practices by refusing to introduce the full transparency the Conservatives promised but failed to deliver,” she said.

Peter Dowd, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “Money laundering hurts our economy, steals from others and corrupts our society. The financial system should effectively and efficiently provide investment that benefits the whole economy, not boost the offshore bank balances of plutocrats and criminals here and abroad.”

Molly Scott Cato, a Green MEP, said “the relationship between UK companies and our murky offshore tax havens permit the world’s corrupt elite to indulge their extravagant lifestyles at public expense,” she said. “They then use these ill-gotten gains to buy political influence that prevents them from being held to account for human rights abuses and bad government.”