The drive to get more British businesses exporting could expose smaller companies to bribery, anti-corruption campaigners have warned.

Experts say that the Serious Fraud Office investigation into Airbus over its use of third parties to broker foreign sales has highlighted the risks of doing business in emerging markets.

If one of the world’s largest companies can get caught up in fraud, bribery and corruption probes, the risks for smaller businesses without the same levels of legal and governance support are even higher, activists claim.

Philippa Foster Back, director of the Institute of Business Ethics, said: “The greatest risk over bribery is the lack of knowledge that small and medium-sized businesses can have. They don’t have the financial reserves to be able to walk away from a deal and feel they aren’t in the spotlight like big companies.”

Katherine Dixon, director of defence and security at Transparency International, said: “Companies are being encouraged to export by the Government into new markets and many of these are ones with poor standards when it comes to preventing corruption.”