Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The UK’s City minister Tulip Siddiq has been named in a second probe by authorities in Bangladesh as she battles calls from charities to resign her anti-corruption brief.
The Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission has alleged that Siddiq tried to pressure her aunt, the country’s former leader Sheikh Hasina, to allocate plots of land in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone to Siddiq’s mother and two siblings.
Investigators have alleged that Sheikh Hasina while in office used senior officials at Dhaka’s development authority RAJUK to allocate roughly one acre of land to herself and her two children in the capital’s Purbachal New Town Project.
“When she became aware . . . while serving as a Member of the British Parliament, Ms Tulip Siddiq is alleged to have used her special influence and authority to pressure and influence her aunt, Ms Sheikh Hasina, to arrange similar allocations in the same project, for her mother, Ms Rehana Siddique, her sister, Ms Azmina Siddique, and her brother, Mr Radwan Mujib Siddique,” the ACC said in a report published on Monday setting out the allegations. The report alleged that Sheikh Rehana was allocated a plot in 2022.
The investigation is separate to an earlier probe into claims that Siddiq and several other family members benefited from a $12bn Bangladesh government deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant. The family have denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Siddiq has been a Labour MP since 2015 and is a close ally of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Last week, Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards.
“Tulip has self-reported to the independent adviser on ministerial standards to independently establish the facts on these matters,” a spokesperson for Siddiq said on Tuesday. “She is clear that she has done nothing wrong.”
Downing Street on Tuesday said Magnus would report back “shortly”.
Sheikh Rehana — Sheikh Hasina’s only living sibling and a key political figure in the ousted administration — Radwan Mujib Siddique and Azmina Siddique could not be immediately reached for comment. Sheikh Hasina and her children, Sajeeb Wazed and Saima Wazed, also could not immediately be reached.
Sheikh Hasina’s regime was toppled last summer following a student-led protest that was initially met with violent suppression by security forces, leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
The former Bangladesh leader last month denied she had ordered security forces to use lethal force against protesters and claimed the allegations against her were “false propaganda”.
Her son Sajeeb Wazed last month dismissed the nuclear power plant probe, telling Reuters it was “not possible to siphon off billions from a $10bn project [the nuclear deal] . . . none of us have ever seen that kind of money”.
Siddiq has faced calls from the UK’s opposition Conservative party to resign from her Treasury post, while anti-corruption charities have said that her current role is untenable.
The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition — which includes groups such as Oxfam, Transparency International and Spotlight on Corruption — said in a statement on Monday that Siddiq should hand over responsibilities for countering economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance to another government minister.
Siddiq currently held a “serious conflict of interest” due to direct family ties to a deposed regime that may be investigated by UK authorities, the coalition said.
“The UK has a historic responsibility to support the new interim government of Bangladesh, to ensure a democratic transition, and to recover stolen assets, not least because some of those assets may be hidden in the UK itself,” the coalition added.
Starmer’s spokesperson said on Monday the prime minister retained “full confidence” in Siddiq.