Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to investigate a Labour minister after it emerged she made use of a second home linked to the recently deposed Bangladeshi regime.
Tulip Siddiq, the niece of former authoritarian prime minister Sheikh Hasina, used a flat in Hampstead, north London, after it was gifted to her teenage sister by an ally of the ousted Awami League party.
Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi lawyer who has represented Hasina’s government, was the generous donor, according to the Sunday Times.
Hasina stands accused by the new Bangladeshi administration of ‘massacres, killings and crimes against humanity’, including the deaths of at least 800 protesters. She is also accused of corruption and embezzlement, with her rule ending in self-imposed exile last August following an uprising.
The Hampstead revelation, which came just days after it emerged that Ms Siddiq was given a flat in King’s Cross by another associate of senior Awami League members, has sparked furious calls for an inquiry.
Matt Vickers, shadow Home Office minister, said: ‘Allegations of this nature against any member of government are unacceptable, but are even more concerning because Tulip Siddiq is Starmer’s anti-corruption minister.
‘The questions facing Tulip Siddiq are growing by the day, and it is time for Keir Starmer to grow a spine and take action. He shouldn’t let his close friendship with her get in the way of doing the right thing.’
Mr Ghani is understood to have given the flat on Finchley Road to Ms Siddiq’s sister Azmina, then 18, in 2009.
Tulip Siddiq used a flat in Hampstead, North London gifted to her teenage sister by an ally of the ousted Bangladeshi Awami League party
Ms Siddiq with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Treasury minister was also given a flat in King’s Cross by another associate of senior Awami League members
Land Registry documents state that the transfer was ‘not for money or anything that has a monetary value’.
The minister listed the flat as her address on Companies House on three occasions between 2012 and 2014, before becoming a Labour MP. Her husband, Christian Percy, listed it as his residence as late as May 2016, by which time Ms Siddiq represented Hampstead and Kilburn. The property was sold for £650,000 in 2021.
A spokesman for Ms Siddiq said: ‘Any suggestion that Tulip Siddiq’s ownership of this property, or any other property is in any way linked to support for the Awami League, would be categorically wrong.’
Ms Siddiq has faced calls to step back from anti-corruption work amid claims she helped her family embezzle £4 billion from a nuclear power project.
Bangladesh’s high court has heard claims that Ms Siddiq, 42, may have helped to ‘broker’ the nuclear plant deal, worth £10 billion. It was signed in the Kremlin in 2013 by Hasina and Vladimir Putin in the presence of Ms Siddiq – then a Labour councillor.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says the alleged embezzlement was between 2009 and 2023 while Hasina was prime minister.
The ACC is also investigating Ms Siddiq’s mother, 69, her ex-PM aunt, 77, and two other relatives. They are alleged to have siphoned off £3.9 billion through fake companies and Malaysian bank accounts.
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty said the Prime Minister ‘must investigate’ Ms Siddiq as the allegations surrounding the anti-corruption minister continue to grow.
Fellow backbencher Joe Robertson said the ‘allegations need to be properly investigated and while that happens she needs to step aside from her Government role which includes anti-corruption’. Ex-Tory minister Neil O’Brien added: ‘Ironically [Ms Siddiq’s] job is “countering economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance”.’
Ms Siddiq (left) with her aunt, former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin
Ms Siddiq has faced calls to step back from anti-corruption work amid claims she helped her family embezzle £4 billion from a nuclear power project
No 10 has previously said that Ms Siddiq, the Treasury minister responsible for tackling corruption, maintained the confidence of the Prime Minister.
Since 2022, Ms Siddiq has been renting a £2.1 million property in Finchley, north London, which belongs to a company owned by Abdul Karim Nazim, a member of the Awami League’s UK executive.
A source said Ms Siddiq moved into the flat over security concerns and ‘pays a rate consistent with market levels’.
Ms Siddiq’s family have also been beneficiaries of generous donations from allies of the party. Her mother lives in a property in Golders Green, north London, owned through an offshore trust by Shayan Rahman, who is the son of a billionaire politician and adviser to Hasina.
Ms Siddiq’s sister and mother previously resided in a Hampstead home owned by Kazi Zafarullah, a member of the Awami League’s executive committee, who bought it in 2007 and sold it for £499,000 in 2012.
In previous years, Ms Siddiq has insisted that a King’s Cross flat given to her by Abdul Motalif, who has links to associates of Hasina, was not a gift, instead saying her parents had bought it for her. In recent days, however, it has emerged the flat was handed over as an act of ‘gratitude’.
A source close to Ms Siddiq told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Tulip’s previous understanding of how she gained ownership of the property has changed. As soon as she realised the error, she ensured the journalist who enquired previously was informed.’
Mr Ghani and Mr Nazim were contacted for comment.
Former Tory party chairman Richard Holden said last night: ‘With such serious allegations, Sir Keir Starmer must fully investigate the City minister.’