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British Urban Affairs Minister Tulip Siddiq is under renewed pressure to resign, with the opposition leader calling for her to be fired after she was implicated in a property scandal linked to Bangladesh’s ousted government.
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservatives, said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should sack Siddiq, whose role covers anti-corruption policy, following allegations she benefited from properties linked to the Awami League, the party led by his aunt Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
“It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq,” Badenoch said in a statement. post on on Saturday evening. “The Prime Minister has tried to highlight his commitment to standards and integrity. . . His weak leadership over the Siddiq suggests that he is not as bothered by integrity as he claims.
Earlier this week, Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, after a Financial Times investigation revealed she had been given a two-bedroom apartment in London’s King’s Cross in the early 2000s by a person with ties to Awami. League.
On Sunday, a minister suggested Siddiq would be sacked if the investigation found wrongdoing. “The investigation must be carried out,” Science Minister Peter Kyle told Sky’s Trevor Phillips.
“I think this is the appropriate way forward. I give him all the space he needs. I will listen to the result, as will the Prime Minister.
“This will be a functional process, the results of which will be respected by the Prime Minister and this government, a complete contrast to what we have had in the past.”
Siddiq insisted she had done nothing wrong and Number 10 insiders said so far they had seen no evidence of a breach of the ministerial code.
The city minister also lived in several other properties linked to the former Awami League regime, which was toppled last summer following a student-led protest that was initially violently suppressed by security forces and which led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians. .
Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist and interim leader of Bangladesh, said in an interview with the Sunday Times newspaper that the properties used by Siddiq should be returned if it was found that the minister had benefited from a “simple theft”.
“She becomes minister for the fight against corruption and defends herself [over the London properties]“, he said. “Maybe you didn’t realize it, but now you do. You say, ‘Sorry, I didn’t know that [at] this time I apologize to people for doing this and I resign. She doesn’t say that. She defends herself.
Siddiq was named in an investigation last month by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her family, including Siddiq, of taking a stake in a Russian-backed nuclear project , claims they denied.
After taking power in August, Bangladesh’s interim government appointed Ahsan Mansur, a former IMF official, to head the country’s central bank and began recouping billions of dollars that the country’s new leaders say , had been withdrawn from the banking system and sent abroad.
In an interview in October, Mansur told the FT that around Tk2 trillion ($16.7 billion) had been withdrawn from the country after forced takeovers of major banks by people linked to the Awami League, using methods such as fake loans and inflated import bills. .
Bangladesh’s Financial Intelligence Unit last week ordered the country’s banks to provide transaction details of all accounts linked to Siddiq and his family, according to sources familiar with the matter.
An ally of Siddiq said she only held a UK bank account and had no overseas accounts.
Downing Street highlighted Starmer’s remarks earlier this week when he said he had confidence in Siddiq and that she had “acted absolutely correctly in referring to the independent adviser”.
