British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suffered another blow on Tuesday when his anti-corruption minister, Tulip Siddiq, resigned from her post weeks after being named in the Bangladesh embezzlement probe.
Mrs Siddiq, 42, is a niece Sheikh Hasinathe former prime minister of Bangladesh, who resigned last year after 15 years in power and fled the country amid a broad student protest movement against her repressive rule.
A junior minister in Mr Starmer’s government, Ms Siddiq previously referred the prime minister’s ethics adviser for an investigation after questions arose about whether she benefited financially from her links with Ms Hasina.
Ms Siddiq dismissed the allegations against her as politically motivated and insisted she had done nothing wrong. But in an official letter of resignation Mr. She wrote to Starmer on Tuesday that the media’s focus on her risks diverting attention from the government’s political agenda.
“I want to assure you that I have acted and continue to act with full transparency and in accordance with the advice of officials on these matters,” Ms Siddiq wrote. “However, it is clear that my continued role as economic secretary at the Ministry of Finance is likely to disrupt the work of the government.”
As Economic Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, a position she was given when the Labor Party came to power last July, Ms Siddiq was responsible for tackling corruption in the financial markets, including money laundering and illicit financing.
Mr Starmer’s ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, said on Tuesday that after reviewing the facts of Ms Siddiq’s case, he concluded she had not breached the code under which ministers serve. IN letter to the prime ministersaid he found no evidence of impropriety or that she made unusual financial arrangements.
However, he added that it was “regrettable that she was not more aware of the potential reputational risks – both to her and to the government – arising from her immediate family’s connection to Bangladesh.”
He added: “Unfortunately, I have not been able to get comprehensive comfort in relation to all the property issues in the UK that have been discussed in the media.”
The departure is the second high-profile resignation from Mr Starmer’s government in recent months, after Louise Haigh quit her job as transport secretary in November when it emerged that she had been convicted of telephone fraud a decade earlier.
Unlike Ms Haigh, Ms Siddiq was not a member of the cabinet but was seen as a political ally of Mr Starmer, the nature of her role in government adding to the embarrassment. She was replaced by Emma Reynolds, another junior minister.
Ms. Siddiq was named in December in an investigation into claims that her family embezzled up to 3.9 billion pounds, or nearly $5 billion, from infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.
Officials of the new Bangladeshi government have accused Ms. Hasina and her associates of raking in billions of dollars from the country every year, bringing its economy to the brink of collapse.
Mrs. Siddiq was born in London. Her father was an academician, and her mother Sheikh Rehana is Mrs. Hasina’s sister. The two sisters were the only survivors of the 1975 military coup that massacred the rest of their family, including their father, Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman, the founder of Bangladesh.
The furore over the Bangladesh investigation has prompted a wider British media focus on Ms Siddiq’s links to her aunt, including reports that she lived in properties in London with links to Ms Hasina.
Interim Leader of Bangladesh, Muhammed Yunussaid in an interview last weekend with The Sunday Times that Ms Siddiq should apologize and that London property should be returned to his government if they were acquired through corrupt means.
On Tuesday, Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, criticized the prime minister for not taking action sooner.
“It was clear over the weekend that the position of the Minister for the fight against corruption is completely untenable,” she wrote on social networks. “However, Keir Starmer hesitated and delayed to protect his close friend.”
In the official exchange of letters after the departure of Mrs. Siddiq, Mr. Starmer wrote that his former minister had “made a difficult decision” but added that “the door remains open” for her to continue – signaling that a return to government could be possible for her in the future.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.
