Russian President Vladimir Putin, third proper, and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, third left, and Tulip Siddiq, first left, attend a signing ceremony within the Kremlin, Moscow in 2013
AP
The previous MP beforehand referred herself to the watchdog for ministerial requirements after media experiences raised questions on a variety of properties linked to her and her household and her aunt’s political motion in Bangladesh.
Following experiences that she lived in properties in London linked to allies of her aunt, former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Ms Siddiq referred herself to the unbiased adviser on ministerial requirements, Sir Laurie Magnus, on January 6.
Talking to the Sunday Occasions, Bangladeshi chief Muhammad Yunus stated London properties utilized by Ms Siddiq needs to be investigated and handed again to his authorities in the event that they have been acquired by way of “plain theft”.
He additionally known as on her to apologise and resign, saying: “She turns into the minister for anti-corruption and defends herself. Possibly you didn’t realise it however now you realise it.
“You say: ‘Sorry, I didn’t comprehend it (at) that point, I search forgiveness from the those that I did this and I resign.’ She’s not saying that. She’s defending herself.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative chief, accused the prime minister of appointing “his private good friend as anti-corruption minister and he or she is accused herself of corruption” and known as for her to be sacked.
Tulip Siddiq was additionally seen on the Kremlin in 2013 when Putin closed a £10 billion deal for Russian state-backed power firm Rosatom to construct Bangladesh’s first nuclear energy plant.
Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt, was the longest serving prime minister of Bangladesh. She fled the nation and went into self-imposed exile earlier this 12 months following a student-led rebellion. So who’s Tulip Siddiq and the way did she get right here?
A protracted-time Labour campaigner
Former Labour MP Tulip Siddiq pictured with Sir Keir Starmer and his spouse
Tulip Siddiq
Tulip Siddiq, 42, was born in north London. Her mom, Sheikh Rahana, gained political asylum within the UK as a younger girl, after a army coup ousted her household in Bangladesh.
She joined the Labour Celebration aged 16 and campaigned within the US in 2008 for Barack Obama to be elected president and was a part of Ed Miliband’s marketing campaign to be Labour chief in 2010.
She ran for election as a councillor for Camden unsuccessfully in 2006 earlier than turning into the primary feminine Bangladeshi councillor for Camden Council in 2010. In 2015 she grew to become the MP for Hampstead and Highgate.
As a north London MP, Siddiq campaigned for refugees, range and equal pay within the workforce, and for the liberty of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian citizen detained in Iran between 2016 and 2022.
When Labour received the 2024 election, Keir Starmer, the brand new prime minister, made her financial secretary to the Treasury, a job with accountability for reforming and regulating the UK’s monetary providers.
Who’s Siddiq’s aunt Sheikh Hasina?
Sheikh Hasina, the now deposed prime minister of Bangladesh and aunt of Tulip Siddiq, pictured throughout a 2014 go to to London
Oli Scarff/PA Archive
The MP’s maternal grandfather was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the primary president of Bangladesh. In 1975, the Bangladesh military invaded the president’s residence and assassinated the complete household – aside from Sheikh Rahana and her older sister Sheikh Hasina, who have been in West Germany on the time.
Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt, took refuge in India earlier than being elected as president of political social gathering Bangladesh Awami League in 1981 and returning to her house nation. She was elected and served because the president of Bangladesh between 1996 and 2001 and once more between 2009 and 2024.
Hasina’s successive phrases made her the longest serving feminine head of presidency on the earth and he or she has been credited with the nation’s rising financial success. Nevertheless, her regime has been described as more and more authoritarian, with allegations of political arrests, disappearances and extra-judicial killings of her opponents.
She fled Bangladesh to India in a helicopter in Could after a protest led by college students stormed her official residence. Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Fee (ACC) is now investigating Hasina for corruption, which has delivered to consideration Siddiq’s involvement with the nuclear take care of Russia.
What was the nuclear take care of Vladimir Putin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the take care of Bangladesh
Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photograph/AP
In 2013 Hasina signed a take care of President Putin to construct Rooppur nuclear energy plant, the nation’s first. Russian state-backed firm Rosatom provided the reactor and designed the important infrastructure. The plant is because of begin producing electrical energy this 12 months.
Siddiq might be seen together with her aunt and the Russian chief in footage taken on the Kremlin in the course of the signing of the £10 billion deal.
The ACC is alleging that £3.9 billion of kickbacks from the power deal have been embezzled by Hasina’s household, and that Siddiq herself was “instrumental in managing the affairs and coordinating conferences with Russian authorities officers”.
Siddiq has “denied any involvement within the claims”, through a spokesperson for Keir Starmer. She beforehand stated she was in attendance purely to be a part of a “household event”.
Starmer has backed Siddiq to stay in publish because the financial secretary to the Treasury and proceed dealing with anti-corruption points.
Have Siddiq’s household connections been questioned earlier than?
Tulip Siddiq being confronted by a Channel 4 information crew at an occasion for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Channel 4
Sure. In 2017 Alex Thomson of Channel 4 Information requested Siddiq in regards to the disappearance of British barrister Ahmad bin Quasem in Bangladesh throughout her aunt’s rule. This was in the course of the time the MP was campaigning for Nazanin’s launch.
Siddiq was caught on digicam making “apparently threatening” remarks to Channel 4 producer Daisy Ayliffe, who was pregnant on the time. The MP stated: “Thanks for coming, Daisy, hope you might have an awesome start, as a result of little one labour is tough!”
She later put out an apology assertion, saying her remark was “an off-hand and ill-judged try to take care of what I felt was a hostile scenario”.
Upon being questioned over the properties scenario, Siddiq claimed she had performed nothing fallacious, however as of January 14 as resigned from her place.
In a letter to Sir Laurie asking for an investigation to be opened, she maintained she had performed nothing fallacious.
In her letter to Sir Laurie, Ms Siddiq stated: “In latest weeks I’ve been the topic of media reporting, a lot of it inaccurate, about my monetary affairs and my household’s hyperlinks to the previous authorities of Bangladesh.
“I’m clear that I’ve performed nothing fallacious. Nevertheless, for the avoidance of doubt, I would really like you to independently set up the details about these issues. I’ll clearly guarantee you might have all the knowledge you might want to do that.”
What’s Tulip Siddiq’s relationship with Keir Starmer like?
The prime minister beforehand backed the MP and advised a press convention Ms Siddiq had “acted completely correctly” in referring herself to Sir Laurie and that he had “confidence in her”.
Others have additionally backed her. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, stated he had full confidence in Ms Siddiq.
He advised Occasions Radio: “She has performed the precise factor. All these allegations have been made, and he or she has referred all of them to the unbiased adviser on ministerial pursuits.
“After we received the election six months in the past, we boosted the powers of the unbiased adviser within the new ministerial code that was issued, to make it possible for he had the facility to provoke and perform investigations into allegations like this. That’s what he’s doing, and that’s the proper option to take care of this.”
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