Council leader praises ‘hard-working’ Treasury minister for resigning amid anti-corruption probe

The leader of Camden Council has said he “commends” Tulip Siddiq for quitting as Treasury minister after she was named in an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh.

On Tuesday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP resigned from her role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury following intense scrutiny over properties “gifted” to her family by individuals affiliated with the Awami League (AL) in Bangladesh.

Siddiq is currently facing investigation by Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) over claims that she misused her “special influence” as an MP to arrange land allocations with her aunt, the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Despite referring herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards and being cleared of breaching the ministerial code, Siddiq yesterday resigned from the government to avoid creating a “distraction” for the Labour administration.

Leader Richard Olszewski praised Siddiq on X (formerly Twitter) for doing the “right” thing in referring herself to the watchdog and for resigning from the frontbench.

“I commend her for stepping down as a minister, rather than be a distraction from the important work of the government,” he wrote.

“As a councillor and Camden Leader, I’ve always found Tulip to be a hard-working constituency MP and she was assiduous as a minister in the new Labour government.

“I will continue to work closely with her as MP for Hampstead & Highgate to secure the best for Camden’s residents.”

Siddiq was first elected as MP for Hampstead and Kilburn in 2015 and later Hampstead and Highgate after constituency boundaries were changed.

She served as a local councillor for the borough’s Regent’s Park ward from 2010, before becoming an MP.

As a Treasury minister, she was responsible for fighting corruption.

Following an investigation by the Times newspaper, Siddiq was revealed to have previously lived in a Hampstead flat gifted to her family by an ally of the authoritarian ruler Hasina, who was overthrown last August.

The Financial Times revealed that a King’s Cross flat, which Siddiq owns and lets out, was given to her by a different AL associate, Abdul Motalif.

She and her family reside in a £2.1 million mansion in Finchley owned by Abdul Karim Nazim, an executive member of the AL’s UK branch.

The Guardian has reported that, according to a now-deleted section of Ms Siddiq’s website, she worked “for the AL as part of its UK and EU lobbying unit and election strategy team” and has spoken for the organisation on BBC World News.

In 2017, Channel 4 published footage of Siddiq ostensibly thanking the party’s members for their work supporting her election campaign.

Her election flyers were also discovered in Sheikh Hasina’s abandoned official residence.

The new administration in Dhaka has said Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister is culpable for “massacres, killings and crimes against humanity”, including the deaths of at least 800 demonstrators.

Hasina has also been accused of corruption and embezzling up to £3.9 billion in public infrastructure money.

Siddiq was previously named by the ACC in a separate investigation which is seeking to establish if she had helped broker a corrupt deal between Bangladesh and Russia in 2013, whereby £1bn was siphoned off.

She has denied these allegations.

There is no indication Siddiq is involved across the full scope of the ACC’s investigation into the former Prime Minister.

The UK’s independent adviser for ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that although he did not find evidence of “improprieties”, it was “regrettable that she was not more alert to the “potential reputational risks – both to her and the Government – arising from her close family’s association with Bangladesh”.

Prior to her resignation, he recommended Keir Starmer “consider her ongoing responsibilities” in light of his investigation.

Another Camden politician, Cllr Nazma Rahman, came under the spotlight last year for her months-long absence from the borough after “going into hiding” in Bangladesh.

The council previously said she was “caught up in the recent political turmoil in the country” and her family came under the “direct threat of violence” during their visit to the country last summer amid civil unrest.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his “door remains open to [Siddiq] going forward”.

Starmer has since faced questions about his judgement over her initial appointment.

The Institute for Government (IfG) said the episode suggests that Labour is “not yet used to the scrutiny of government”.