Tulip Siddiq assaults ‘false’ Bangladesh corruption allegations
Former Labour minister Tulip Siddiq has accused the Bangladeshi authorities of mounting a “focused and baseless” marketing campaign in opposition to her.
In a letter to Bangladesh’s Anti Corruption Fee (ACC), the MP’s attorneys say allegations of corruption are “false and vexatious” and have by no means been formally put to her by investigators, regardless of being briefed to the media.
Siddiq resigned as financial secretary to the Treasury, with accountability for tackling corruption within the UK’s monetary markets, in January.
The Hampstead and Highgate MP insisted on the time she had accomplished nothing flawed however that she didn’t need to be a “distraction” to the federal government.
In a letter accepting her resignation, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a detailed good friend of Siddiq who represents a neighbouring constituency in North London, mentioned the “door stays open” to her return.
Siddiq had referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus when the corruption allegations first surfaced in January.
Sir Laurie mentioned in his report that he had “not recognized proof of improprieties”.
However he added it was “regrettable” that Siddiq had not been extra alert to the “potential reputational dangers” of the ties to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh.
The ACC is inspecting claims Sheikh Hasina and her household embezzled as much as £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
The investigation is predicated on a collection of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.
Court docket paperwork seen by the BBC present Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of serving to to dealer a take care of Russia in 2013 that overinflated the worth of a brand new nuclear energy plant in Bangladesh.
In its letter to the ACC, Siddiq’s attorneys, Stephenson Harwood, repeat her declare that she was not concerned within the nuclear plant deal in any means, regardless of being pictured at a signing ceremony within the Kremlin in 2013, with Sheikh Hasina and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“It’s not unusual for relations to be invited to accompany Heads of State on state visits,” the letter says, including that she had no information of any alleged monetary irregularities.
It says claims {that a} £700,000 flat in London King’s Cross gifted to Siddiq in 2004 was “not directly the fruits of embezzlement” have been “absurd” and “can’t be true” as a result of it was 10 years earlier than the nuclear deal.
In his investigation into the allegations, Sir Laurie Magnus mentioned that “over an prolonged interval, she was unaware of the origins of her possession of her flat in Kings Cross, regardless of having signed a Land Registry switch type regarding the reward on the time”.
She “remained underneath the impression that her dad and mom had purchased the property for her”, Sir Laurie added, however needed to appropriate the file when she grew to become a authorities minister.
He describes this as an “unlucky misunderstanding” which meant the general public had been “inadvertently misled concerning the id of the donor of this reward”.
Of their letter to the ACC, Siddiq’s attorneys affirm that the King’s Cross flat was given to her by Abdul Motalif, who’s described as “an Iman and a really shut household good friend, akin to Ms Siddiq’s godfather”.
The letter additionally comprises an in depth rebuttal of allegations made by the ACC to the media that Siddiq was concerned within the appropriation of land in Dhaka.
It describes ACC briefings to the media as an “unacceptable try and intrude with UK politics”.
“At no level have any allegations been put to her pretty, correctly and transparently, or certainly in any respect, by the ACC or anybody else with correct authority on behalf of the Bangladeshi authorities, ” the letter says.
“We require that you simply instantly cease manufacturing false and vexatious allegations in opposition to Ms Siddiq and additional media briefings and public feedback designed to hurt her repute.”
The letter says the ACC should put inquiries to Siddiq “promptly” and “in any occasion by no later than 25 March 2025″ or ” we will presume that there are not any professional inquiries to reply”.
The ACC’s chairman, Mohammad Abdul Momen, instructed The Occasions: “All allegations raised in opposition to Ms Siddiq will likely be confirmed in any courtroom, together with those in the UK.”
