Sir Keir Starmer met a senior member of Bangladesh's ousted ruling party last month, even though the Awami League faces accusations of embezzlement and allowing its security forces to kill protesters.
The British Prime Minister met Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury, the ousted mayor of Sylhet and a key figure in the party, at a dinner hosted by the Labor Party at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Glasgow in December. The pair were pictured speaking at a black-tie event held for Labor supporters.
The meeting was the culmination of decades of bridge-building between the Awami League and the Labor Party, which helped the Ukip party win key parliamentary seats and make progress with the Bangladeshi community in Britain.
However, corruption allegations against some members of the former Bangladeshi ruling family have begun to emerge The city minister under pressure from Starmer, Tulip SiddiqueIt raised questions about the wisdom of the long-term relationship between the two parties.
The Awami League – led by Siddiq's aunt Sheikh Hasina – had ruled the South Asian country for 16 years before that. He is overthrown In a student-led protest last summer.
Hundreds of people were killed in Bangladesh over the summer when police and supporters of Sheikh Hasina clashed with demonstrators. Regime-linked forces have been accused of using disproportionate force against civilians, including firing live ammunition.
Siddiq was named in an investigation last month by the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission amid allegations that her family embezzled $5 billion from a nuclear power plant project. The family denies all allegations of wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, a friend referred herself to the government's ethics watchdog after the Financial Times revealed she had been given a £195,000 property in London's King's Cross by someone linked to the Awami League.
Social media posts reveal that the PT has become closely involved with the Awami League over the years, including accepting endorsements from elected Bangladeshi politicians.
Starmer was photographed accepting a donation check on behalf of the Labor Party from someone with links to the Awami League, while he and Sadiq Khan, the Labor mayor of London, were photographed meeting key figures, including Choudhury.
Khan posted on Facebook that it was a “true honor” to meet Chaudhry last May, after receiving his support before the municipal elections in the capital. During the meeting, Chaudhry said he had been campaigning for Khan for more than a decade.
Chaudhry did not respond to a request for comment.
This relationship also helped Labor reach out to the Bangladeshi community in Britain before the general election. A Financial Times analysis of electoral data suggests there were at least 17 parliamentary seats where the voting-age Bangladeshi population was larger than Labour's winning majority last July.
Starmer's seat of Holborn and St Pancras – which he won with a majority of around 11,000 last summer – has more than 6,000 voting-age residents of Bangladeshi origin.
Awami League supporters campaigned across the country for Labor in last year's general election, appearing at events in Lancashire and Greater Manchester and accompanying Siddiq on campaign trips, according to social media posts and people familiar with the events.
One Labor official told the Financial Times that the “incursions” into the community were partly prompted by the connection between Siddiq and her family that once ruled Bangladesh.
Her grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, helped lead the country to independence from Pakistan in 1971 before he was assassinated four years later along with several members of her family. Only Siddiq's mother, Sheikha Rehana, and her aunt survived.
“The Siddiq family is the Kennedy family of Bangladeshi politics,” the official said.
Sheikh Hasina, who will secure her fourth term in 2023 amid allegations of voter fraud, has long been seen as a secular force against Islamist politics in the region. But the regime has been accused of embezzling funds from the country's banks, and using detention without charges to silence opponents.
The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh on Monday issued arrest warrants for Sheikh Hasina and 11 of her senior officials for their alleged role in the enforced disappearance.
Chris Hopkins, director of political research at pollster Savanta, said Labor relied more on diaspora votes than its political rivals, which forced it to form alliances to reach out to specific communities.
“It may not be front and center in the Westminster bubble, but it will be front and center in these communities and, rightly or wrongly, Labor will be guilty by association,” Hopkins added.
The grassroots organization Friends of Workers Bangladesh – which was founded in 2005 but has become closely associated with the Awami League – also played a prominent role in coordinating the Workers' Party's election campaign efforts.
“In the past few years, the 'Friends of the Bangladesh Labor Party' has been used heavily to promote the Awami League,” said Ohid Ahmed, a former member of the League's main political rival Bangladesh National Party, who founded the grassroots group but left the Awami League in 2010. “I don't think there was anyone from the other side or believed in the other political parties…that was even able to attend their meetings.
Howard Dawber, chair of the Friends of the Labor Party in Bangladesh since 2010 and deputy mayor of London, said the organization had supporters from all parties and had “worked hard not to get sucked into Bangladeshi politics”. “It's a difficult tightrope to walk,” he added.
Now, the Labor Party's use of the Awami League as a channel to communicate with minorities may have to change.
Ashraf Haque, assistant professor of social anthropology at University College, said: “The Labor Party has historically understood that the Awami League was a good way to get votes, but even though a lot of changes have happened since it has held a misguided view that it still has support.” In society.” London.
He added that in addition to the Awami League's declining standing, the treatment of British Bangladeshi voters as a single bloc fueled unhelpful narratives about the community. “It's a dysfunctional feature of Labour's politics.”
Labor said: “The UK and Bangladesh have a long-standing relationship in areas of mutual interest such as trade and security. It is perfectly legitimate for politicians to meet others from all over the world, as MPs of all parties have done. “Once again, this falls short of an endorsement of their policies.”
Additional reporting by Oliver Hawkins
