Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigns due to links with a corrupt foreign leader

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Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigns due to links with a corrupt foreign leader
Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq resigns due to links with a corrupt foreign leader

Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned from the government, saying questions about her links with her aunt’s political party in Bangladesh had become a ‘distraction’.

Pressure had been building on the Labour MP for days, after it was revealed she lived in a number of London properties linked to her family’s political allies.

Earlier today, it was reported she had been named in a new Bangladeshi investigation into illegal allocation of land.

Siddiq, who was responsible for tackling corruption in the finance industry as city minister, referred herself to the independent advisor on ministerial standards Sir Laurie Magnus at the beginning of last week.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, second right, and Tulip Siddiq, left, attend a signing ceremony in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel, Pool, File) qhiukiuiqkdinv

Today, Magnus said it was ‘regrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks’ of her ‘close family’s association with Bangladesh’.

He concluded she had not broken the ministerial code, but pointedly added in his letter to Keir Starmer that he ‘will want to consider her ongoing responsibilities in the light of this’.

Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina, served as prime minister of Bangladesh between 1996 and 2001 then again from 2009 to 2024.

She resigned last year amid a mass uprising against her government, which had been plagued for years by accusations of widespread corruption and brutality.

Siddiq claimed to ‘never talk about politics’ with her aunt, who has previously been labelled a ‘despot’, and is being investigated for allegedly embezzeling billions from a nuclear power project.

However, blog posts written by her in 2008 and 2009 revealed she travelled to the country to campaign with her aunt for her Awami League party, and her Labour election flyers were spotted in her deposed aunt’s palace.

Yesterday, Bangladeshi politician Bobby Hajjaj said Labour must investigate allegations Ms Siddiq ‘looted from a third world country’ and profited from her relationship with her aunt. 

(FILES) Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves (C), holding the red Budget Box, poses with members of her Treasury team, Parliamentary Secretary Emma Reynolds (3L), Exchequer Secretary James Murray (L), Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones (2L), Economic Secretary Tulip Siddiq (R) and Financial Secretary Spencer Livermore outside of 11 Downing Street, in central London, on October 30, 2024, to present the government’s annual Autumn budget to Parliament. UK minister Tulip Siddiq announced her resignation from government on January 14, 2025 after becoming embroiled in a Bangladesh graft probe launched when her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted from power. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

In her own letter to the PM, Siddiq wrote ‘it is clear that continuing in my role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of government’.

She added: ‘My loyalty is and always will be to this Labour government and the programme of national renewal and transformation it has embarked upon. I have therefore decided to resign my ministerial position.’

In his response to Siddiq’s letter, Sir Keir said he accepted her resignation ‘with sadness’.

He wrote: ‘I appreciate that to end ongoing distraction from delivering our agenda to change Britain, you have made a difficult decision and want to be clear that the door remains open for you going forward.’

Tulip Siddiq with Sheikh Hasina in 2009. Bangladesh Awami League President and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (C) arrives for a news conference in Dhaka December 31, 2008. Hasina said on Wednesday she was willing to share power with the disgruntled opposition after winning a massive majority in Bangladesh’s parliamentary election this week. REUTERS/Andrew Biraj (BANGLADESH)

Tulip Siddiq with Sheikh Hasina in 2009 (Picture: Reuters)

Emma Reynolds, a newly MP elected last year who previously served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Treasury, has been appointed to replace Siddiq as Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a post on X: ‘It was clear at the weekend that the anti-corruption minister’s position was completely untenable.

‘Yet Keir Starmer dithered and delayed to protect his close friend.’

She said Sir Keir’s expression of sadness at her departure showed ‘weak leadership from a weak prime minister’.

Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney said: ‘It’s right Tulip Siddiq resigned, you can’t have an anti-corruption minister mired in a corruption scandal.

‘After years of Conservative sleaze and scandal, people rightly expected better from this government.’

Emma Davis

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