Tulip Siddiq resigns as government minister amid Bangladesh corruption probes
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Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a government minister amid a number of corruption probes in Bangladesh. In a letter to Keir Starmer she revealed she had been cleared of breaking the ministerial code, but said her position had become a “distraction”. She is the second minister to go in six months, after former transport secretary Louise Haigh.
Her resignation came hours after it was reported that authorities in Bangladesh filed a criminal case against Ms Siddiq, accusing her of misusing her position as an MP to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt, the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
It comes after Ms Siddiq was apparently named in two corruption probes in Bangladesh linked to her aunt’s government launched by Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC). The ACC said it had filed a case against Sheikh Hasina and her wider family over an alleged large-scale land grab of land in a suburb of Dhaka. The case named both the former prime minister and Ms Siddiq.
ACC director Akhter Hossain said: “Sheikh Hasina, in collaboration with some officials, allocated plots for herself and her family members. “The ACC investigation team has obtained the necessary documents and found sufficient evidence to file the cases.”.
According to the Guardian, the police report detailing the alleged corruption said Ms Siddiq “became aware” of a deal orchestrated by Sheikh Hasina that allotted large plots of land in Dhaka to family members. It accuses the MP for Hampstead and Highgate of using her “special influence and authority to influence her aunt, Ms Sheikh Hasina” to arrange similar land allocations for Ms Siddiq’s mother, sister and brother.
