Allegations of corruption, a dramatic resignation and still serious questions to answer - inside a torrid week for the MP for Hampstead
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It’s never a good look to be accused of helping to facilitate a multi-billion-pound contract with Vladimir Putin’s regime that was allegedly greased with kickbacks — still less when you’re the minister in charge of tackling money-laundering and illicit finance in the UK.
Siddiq clung on for days to her post in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ team. But while insisting that she had done nothing wrong, the MP concluded in a resignation letter to Sir Keir that her continuing in the post would be a “distraction”. The PM accepted her resignation “with sadness” and said he wanted “to be clear that the door remains open for you going forward”. But the questions haven’t gone away, and Siddiq’s future as a Labour MP could still be in jeopardy as investigators in Bangladesh get to grips with claims that Sheikh Hasina oversaw a vast criminal racket - one allegedly facilitated by her allies and proxies in London and elsewhere.
In well-heeled Hampstead and Highgate, a world away from the blood-soaked bearpit of Bangladeshi politics, not everyone is as forbearing as Sir Keir. “Everybody here is aghast,” one person active in constituency politics commented about the property allegations.
“There’s a lot of people working in financial services in Hampstead and Highgate, who are totally familiar with the legal need to report sources of money that might be questionable. Given the Awami League’s involvement, I hope she asked lots of questions when she was gifted these properties. If she didn’t, she’s got lots of questions to answer herself.”.
