Revealed: Tens of thousands of 'golden visas' have been granted to wealthy foreign investors - including 3,966 to Chinese and 2,477 to Russians - since 'backdoor' scheme was launched 12 years ago

Tom Keatinge, of Royal United Services Institute's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, was among those to raise concerns about investor visas when he gave evidence to the committee two years ago. 'The bottom line is that it remains the case that the UK appears to easily welcome into the country money from anybody. The investor visas act as a cloak of approval in facilitating that money. There clearly needs to be a much more rigorous process.'