Back to the curious case of Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate who also works as the government’s City minister. Sir Keir Starmer revealed this morning that the Labour minister – who has also been tasked with the job of tackling financial crime and corruption – has now referred herself to the government’s adviser on ministerial standards over her property holdings after she came under further scrutiny over the weekend. Dear oh dear…
As Steerpike noted back in December, the Labour minister was named in an embezzlement probe after it emerged that Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission was investigating the MP, her mother and her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who also happened to be the country’s authoritarian premier until last year. The MP has denied accusations that she helped to embezzle billions of pounds from a nuclear energy project in Bangladesh – but that’s not the only controversy she’s embroiled in.
Over the weekend reports in the Sunday Times revealed that the Treasury minister lived in a Hampstead flat after it was gifted by Bangladeshi lawyer Moin Ghani – who represented Siddiq’s aunt’s government – to her then-teenage sister Azmina for free. More than that, the Financial Times noted that Siddiq was given a two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross in 2004 – also free of charge. In fact, it was donated by developer Abdul Motalif who has links to Bangladesh’s Awami League party led by Siddiq’s aunt Hasina.
The Mail on Sunday also revealed at the weekend that the newspaper had repeatedly quizzed Siddiq on whether the flat – now worth £700,000 – was gifted to her. The paper reports that the Labour MP denied this, instead adamant that her parents had purchased the property for her. However it has since come to light that the King’s Cross apartment was indeed given to her by developer Motalif as an ‘act of gratitude’. The plot thickens…
In a press conference on Monday morning, the PM defended his City minister, telling journalists that Siddiq had ‘acted entirely properly’ by going to standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus about the reported links between her properties and the ousted Bangladeshi government. Siddiq has insisted in her letter to Magnus that she has ‘done nothing wrong’, while Sir Keir Starmer added: ‘I’ve got confidence in her and the process that will now be happening.’ Not that this is necessarily the attitude behind closed doors – with the Financial Times hearing from a senior Labour official that the leadership was finding it ‘hard to defend’ the City minister’s financial affairs, adding that the situation was ‘becoming a millstone’. Ouch.
Labour’s former transport secretary Louise Haigh stepped down from her role almost immediately after it transpired she had pled guilty to a criminal offence in 2014. Could Sir Keir be about to lose yet another member of his government? Stay tuned…
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