Tulip Siddiq faces calls to resign after Bangladesh leader’s remarks

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British Cities Minister Tulip Siddique is under renewed pressure to resign, with the opposition leader calling for her sacking after she became embroiled in a property scandal involving Bangladesh’s ousted government.

Conservative leader Cammy Badenoch said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should sack Siddiqui, whose role includes anti-corruption policy, after he profited from assets linked to his aunt, Sheikh Hasina’s former Bangladesh Awami League prime minister

“It’s time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddique,” Badenoch said. record in X Saturday night. “The Prime Minister tried to stick to standards and honesty. . His weak lead on Siddiq suggests he is not as concerned about integrity as he claims.”

Earlier this week, Siddiq appealed to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, after a Financial Times investigation revealed that he two-room apartment for rent in London’s King’s Cross in the early 2000s by a person with links to the Awami League.

A cabinet minister suggested on Sunday that Siddique would be sacked if the investigation found any wrongdoing. “The investigation must be completed,” Science Minister Peter Kyle told Sky’s Trevor Phillips.

“I think that this is the right way forward. I am giving it all the space it needs. I will listen to the result, as will the Prime Minister.

“It will be a functional process and the Prime Minister and this government will be committed to its results, a complete contrast to what we have had in the past.”

Siddique has insisted he has done nothing wrong and No 10 insiders have said they have so far seen no evidence of a breach of the ministerial code.

The city minister also lived in several other properties associated with the erstwhile Awami League regime that was flopped last summer After a student-led protest was initially met with violent repression by security forces, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus told the Sunday Times newspaper that the property used by Siddique should be returned if the minister is found to have benefited from “plain robbery”.

“He becomes anti-corruption minister and defends himself [over the London properties]”, he said. “Maybe you didn’t realize it, but now you do. You say: “Sorry, I didn’t know that [at] at that time I apologize to the people that I did this and I resign.” He’s not saying that. He’s defending himself.”

It was Siddiq named in the probe Last month by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her family, including Siddiqui, of abandoning a Russian-backed nuclear power project, claims they denied.

After taking power in August, Bangladesh’s caretaker government appointed former IMF official Ahsan Mansoor to head the country’s central bank and began withdrawing billions of dollars that saw the country’s new leaders pulled out of the banking system and sent abroad.

in an interview given in October. Mansoor told the FT that an estimated Tk2tn ($16.7 billion) was siphoned out of the country after leading banks were forcibly taken over by people linked to the Awami League using methods such as fake loans and inflated import invoices :

Bangladesh’s Financial Intelligence Unit ordered the country’s banks last week to provide transaction details For all accounts related to Siddiq and his family, according to people familiar with the matter.

Siddiqui’s ally said he only had a UK bank account and no overseas accounts.

Downing Street pointed to Starmer’s words earlier this week, when he said he trusted Siddique and that he “acted absolutely appropriately in contacting an independent adviser”.