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UK City Finance Minister Tulip Siddique is under renewed pressure to step down, with the opposition leader calling for her to be sacked after she was embroiled in a property scandal linked to the ousted government in Bangladesh.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should sack Siddiqa, whose role covers anti-corruption policy, after allegations she benefited from property linked to the Awami League, the party led by her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the head of the Conservative Party. Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
“It is time for Keir Starmer to sack Tulip Siddiq,” Badenoch said in his remarks. Share on X Saturday night. “The Prime Minister has tried to make a great deal of his commitment to standards and integrity. . . His poor leadership of a friend suggests that he is not as bothered by integrity as he claims.
Earlier this week, Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government's independent adviser on ministerial standards, after a Financial Times investigation found she was… Give a two-bedroom apartment in King's Cross, London in the early 2000s by someone with links to the Awami League.
On Sunday, one of the ministers hinted that Al-Siddiq would be dismissed if the investigation found any violations had been committed. “The investigation must continue,” Science Minister Peter Kyle told Sky's Trevor Phillips.
“I think this is the appropriate way forward. I am giving her all the space she needs to do so. I will listen to the outcome, as will the Prime Minister.”
He added: “It will be a functional process, and its outcomes will be adhered to by the Prime Minister and this government, which is in complete contrast to what we had in the past.”
Friend insisted she had done nothing wrong, and No10 insiders said they had so far seen no evidence of any breach of the ministerial code.
The city minister also lived in several other properties associated with the erstwhile Awami League regime She ousted him last summer Following a student-led protest that was initially met with violent repression by security forces that led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist and interim leader of Bangladesh, said in an interview with The Sunday Times that property used by Siddiq should be returned if the minister is found to have benefited from “petty theft”.
“She becomes anti-corruption minister and defends herself (on London real estate),” he said. “Maybe you didn't realize it, but you realize it now. She says, 'Sorry, I didn't know that (at) that time. I ask people for forgiveness that I did this and I quit.' She's not saying that. She's defending herself.”
He was the friend His name is in the investigation Last month by the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her family, including a friend, of taking a stake in a Russian-backed nuclear energy project, allegations the family denied.
After taking power in August, Bangladesh's interim government appointed Ahsan Mansoor, a former International Monetary Fund official, to head the country's central bank and begin reclaiming billions of dollars that the country's new leaders claim were taken out of the banking system and directed abroad.
In an interview conducted with him in October. Mansour told FT An estimated 2 trillion taka ($16.7 billion) were taken out of the country after the forced takeover of leading banks by people linked to the Awami League, using methods such as fake loans and inflated import invoices.
Last week, Bangladesh's Financial Intelligence Unit ordered banks in the country To provide transaction details For all accounts linked to a friend and her family, according to people familiar with the matter.
One of Siddiq's allies said she only had a bank account in the UK, and no accounts abroad.
Downing Street referred to Starmer's comments earlier this week when he said he trusted a friend and that she “acted absolutely correctly by referring herself to the independent adviser”.
