How Tulip Siddiq boasted of campaigning alongside aunt in 2008 as pressure mounts on Keir Starmer to sack chaos-hit anti-corruption minister_Nhy
Embattled minister Tulip Siddiq boasted about helping her aunt to become Bangladesh’s prime minister and noted how close they were politically, it emerged yesterday.
The City minister – who is in charge of fighting corruption – is now fighting to keep her job after using properties linked to ‘despot’ Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed last summer after 20 years in power.
Despite her claims that the pair ‘never talk about politics’, blog posts and the discovery of Ms Siddiq’s Labour posters in her aunt’s former palace suggest otherwise.
It came as the minister and members of her family were made formal suspects in an investigation in Bangladesh – a first stage in issuing arrest warrants against them.
Ms Siddiq, her aunt and other family members are being investigated over allegations that billions were embezzled from a nuclear power plant project.
The minister denies any wrongdoing. Last week she referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus following questions about her use of the properties linked to her aunt.
Sir Keir Starmer – who counts Ms Siddiq as a close friend and ally – is under pressure over whether to keep her in his Cabinet as questions mount about her links to the regime.
Yesterday, it emerged that Ms Siddiq had described herself as ‘ecstatic’ after her aunt won Bangladesh’s general election.
Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq with her aunt, the then prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in 2009. Hasina was disposed from office last summer after 20 years in power
Sir Keir Starmer – who counts Ms Siddiq as a close friend and ally – is under pressure over whether to keep her in his Cabinet
Blog posts she wrote in 2008 and 2009 as a Labour activist reveal she travelled to the country to campaign with her aunt and toasted her victory.
She told supporters: ‘I was really busy in Bangladesh as you probably gathered.’
She backed her aunt’s insistence that ‘all the political parties in Bangladesh need to work together for the welfare of the country.’
She said Hasina did not support the ‘politics of vengeance’ and said she hoped that ‘new political culture’ would be created under the regime.
She added of a photo of her speaking to her aunt: ‘Here’s an action shot of me with the prime minister at the press conference.’
In a later post, she revealed that she had campaigned closely with her aunt, writing: ‘I was fortunate enough to travel with Sheikh Hasina in her car during election day.
‘The prime minister-elect (Prime Ministerial candidate at the time!) drove to several constituencies in Dhaka and stopped quickly at each one to meet the parliamentary candidate or speak to the voters.’
Earlier, in December 2008, under the heading ‘Victory!’, Ms Siddiq wrote: ‘The Awami League have won the elections by a landslide! Sheikh Hasina is the prime minister-elect! I am ecstatic!
‘I’ve been on the campaign trail with Sheikh Hasina all day so I don’t really have the energy to write much more but I will do so tomorrow.
Ms Siddiq wrote she was ‘ecstatic’ in 2008 when her aunt’s party won a landslide in Bangladesh
The city minister is also facing questions over a £700,000 apartment in King’s Cross, London which was gifted to her from a developer linked to her aunt
‘However, I can’t resist uploading a couple of photos. This is Sheikh Hasina’s face just before she heard the results from an unwinnable constituency.
‘Here she is after she heard that the Awami League hard work had paid off in that seat.’
The revelation of the blog posts will be difficult for Ms Siddiq who has denied wrongdoing over her use of homes connected to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq and her family live in a £2.1 million semi-detached home owned by Abdul Karim Nazim, an official in the London arm of Hasina’s political party.
There are also mounting questions about whether Ms Siddiq told the truth about a £700,000 apartment in London’s King’s Cross which was a gift from a developer linked to her Bangladeshi dictator aunt.
Yesterday, The Times published pictures of Ms Siddiq’s Labour posters discovered in her aunt’s former palace, the Ganabhaban, in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
Also found was a thank you note to local Labour Party members following her election as MP for Hampstead and Kilburn. Another was her annual report for 2022, inviting readers to learn about her help for those affected by the cost of living crisis.
Yesterday, a Bangladeshi politician said Labour must investigate allegations that Ms Siddiq ‘looted from a third world country’ and profited from her relationship with her aunt.
Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina, told LBC that he believed that evidence would emerge in Bangladesh that proved the claims.
A Bangladeshi politician said Labour must investigate allegations that Ms Siddiq ‘looted from a third world country’ and profited from her relationship with her aunt
Asked whether an investigation was needed to prove that Ms Siddiq did not profit from her relationship with her aunt, he said: ‘Yes, absolutely. Because if [she] did, [she] looted from a third-world country to fund [her] campaign, to fund sort of [her] activity, then [she is] as culpable as Sheikh Hasina is of destroying this country.’
Anti-corruption organisations also called for Ms Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury who is responsible for tackling corruption in the financial industry, to step down over the claims against her.
Susan Hawley, Executive Director of Spotlight on Corruption, said: ‘It is no longer tenable to have someone subject to the kind of allegations Tulip Siddiq has faced over the past weeks playing a key role in the Treasury overseeing economic crime and illicit finance policy.
‘It is a clear conflict of interests for this to continue any longer and it is essential that this brief is moved with immediate effect. We urge the minister to do the right thing.’
Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK, said: ‘It is critically important that government policy and action to prevent money-laundering moves forward, and that businesses are alert to suspicious wealth and those seeking to dissipate the assets they have here.
‘The British government should work closely with international allies and partners in Bangladesh to introduce a sanctions regime which freezes suspicious assets, ensuring any corrupt officials or their associates are unable to enjoy their ill-gotten gains.’
Sir Keir out campaigning with Ms Siddiq in Belsize Park in 2018
Peter Munro, Senior Coalition Coordinator of the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, said: ‘The new Ministerial Code states that “trust is the great test of our era”, and that the government was elected to restore faith in British politics.
‘The clear conflict of interest surrounding Tulip Siddiq presents a key test for the new government on this front. As anti-corruption experts, it is clear to us that she should not hold responsibility for these sensitive areas in her portfolio.’
Sheikh Hasina was deposed as Bangladesh’s prime minister in August amid allegations of corruption and brutality.
A spokesman for Tulip Siddiq said: ‘Tulip has self-reported to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards to independently establish the facts on these matters. She is clear that she has done nothing wrong. It would be inappropriate to comment further while that process is ongoing.’
