Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned from the UK government after being implicated in graft investigations in Bangladesh, launched following the ousting of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, as the country’s leader.
In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday, Siddiq reiterated her innocence but acknowledged that continuing in office would likely “be a distraction from the work of the government.”
Siddiq, 42, has faced persistent allegations regarding her connections to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh in August after a student-led uprising against her decades-long, increasingly authoritarian rule as prime minister. Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges, including mass murder.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission announced that Siddiq and her family members were subject to another graft probe, this time over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital, Dhaka. Family members, including Siddiq, had already been named targets in the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of $5 billion connected to a nuclear power plant.
Bangladeshi money laundering investigators have since ordered the country’s major banks to provide details of transactions related to Siddiq as part of the probe.
In her resignation letter, Siddiq stated that her “family connections were a matter of public record” and that she had acted with “full transparency.” She emphasized her “loyalty is and always will be” to the Labour government and its “programme of national renewal and transformation.”
“I have therefore decided to resign from my ministerial position,” she wrote. Starmer thanked Siddiq for her work and said, “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.”
Siddiq, an MP for a north London constituency, held a ministerial role in the finance ministry, responsible for the UK’s financial services sector and anti-corruption measures.
Over the weekend, a Sunday Times investigation revealed that Siddiq had spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen. The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family, and her ousted government, according to the newspaper. The report also indicated that Siddiq and her family had used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.
Starmer swiftly appointed Emma Reynolds, previously a pensions minister, to Siddiq’s role. Reynolds, 47, was elected to office in the 2024 national election, which saw the Labour Party regain power after 14 years in opposition. She currently represents the Wycombe constituency in southern England and previously served as a lawmaker for a different seat in central England between 2010 and 2019.
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