Britain’s anti-corruption minister resigned on Tuesday amid a controversy over links to her aunt, ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Tulip Siddiq said that she was quitting as economic secretary to the Treasury, saying the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been under growing pressure to remove Siddiq from her post since she referred herself to the U.K. government’s ethics watchdog following reports that she lived in London properties linked to her aunt. Hasina was ousted last year after weeks of protests.
Starmer said he was sad to see Siddiq go, adding that the independent adviser on ministerial interests, Laurie Magnus, “has assured me he found no breach of the Ministerial Code and no evidence of financial improprieties on your part.”
Siddiq, who is responsible for tackling corruption in financial markets, was named last month in an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh against Hasina. The investigation alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
The minister faced further questions about her links to her aunt’s government after reports in the Sunday Times and Financial Times newspapers alleged that she had used two London apartments given to her by associates of Bangladesh’s Awami League, led by Hasina.
Magnus said Siddiq hadn't breached ministerial standards, but given her role in government “it is 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.”
