Following the revelation in Friday’s Financial Times that Tulip Sidiqq, Labour’s Economic Secretary to the Treasury and the minister tasked with tackling financial crime and corruption, was given a flat in King’s Cross by a person connected with the party of the recently ousted Bangladeshi government, the news broke last night that she lived for years in a second freebie property, this one gifted to her sister by an ally of Sheikh Hasina, the now disgraced ex-Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The Sunday Times has more.
Tulip Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury, used a flat on Finchley Road in Hampstead, north London, after it was given to her then teenage sister, Azmina, for free.
The sisters are the nieces of Sheikh Hasina, the authoritarian former prime minister of Bangladesh, who was removed from power last year after uprisings against her rule.
Hasina stands accused by the new administration in Dhaka of “massacres, killings and crimes against humanity”, including the deaths of at least 800 protesters. She is also accused of corruption and embezzlement. Siddiq, 42, is among several family members said to have benefited, although she denies wrongdoing. Sir Keir Starmer has said that she retains his confidence.
Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi lawyer who has represented Hasina’s government and has been pictured with the former prime minister, handed the property to Azmina in 2009.
Land Registry documents state that the transfer was “not for money or anything that has a monetary value”. Azmina was 18 at the time and about to begin her studies at Oxford.
It is unclear exactly when Siddiq moved in to the flat, but, upon her appointment in December 2012 as a director of the Working Men’s College education institute, she listed the property as her address on Companies House. She did the same on becoming a trustee of the Camden Arts Centre charity in January 2014 and the Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust, another non-profit, in March 2014. Her husband, Christian Percy, listed it as his address as late as May 2016, by which time Siddiq was serving as Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn.
Azmina, whose career has included roles at Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change and, more recently, at a children’s charity, sold the residence for £650,000 in 2021.
By then, Ghani, the prior owner, had spent years advising Bangladesh in international disputes. When Hasina’s government nominated him in 2021 for a role on a World Bank panel, he declared: “It was an honour for me to receive a personal note of congratulations and thanks from the honourable prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.”
The Hampstead flat is distinct from a nearby apartment in King’s Cross that Siddiq was given in 2004 and which she still owns. The Financial Times revealed on Friday that it had been given to her by Abdul Motalif, another associate of senior Awami League members. Before Siddiq acquired it the flat was used by Ghani.
Worth reading in full.
Tulip Sidiqq retains Sir Keir’s confidence for now. But how long before she’s forced to resign?
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I wonder if overseas aid was redirected to pay for these and did the FCDO know about it.
Odd, isn’t it, that so many politicians are related to our funded by foreign despots. It is my impression that Labour has the lead on this by a half length ahead of the Tories.
Labour – the party for working people!
British working-class people even. Starmer just loves to put them in rented and gated accommodation where they’re free of all the everyday worries of life like having to pay (or even shop) for food and find the means for rent and utilities. That’s also much more CO₂-efficient than family homes.
Yep all for working people, there was once a socialist workers party in some European country that started off supporting the working man and the exemption of all others, (Ref History 1922-45) but our present socialist workers party, although starting off on similar line has now morphed into a party that supports everyone other than those it once purported to support.
Yup, Labour have become like the US Democrats – voted in by a coalition of the fringes (champagne socialists, welfare recipients and non-white people, extreme woketards). They get away with a lot because of tribal voting loyalties, which have not died out. The Tory brand is still viewed as the party of rich toffs.
Agreed but a similar phenomenon has infected the Tories. It just plays out slightly differently, which is precisely why so many voters have defected to Reform.
If you wrote a manifesto based on the values that the respected Kier – that’s Hardie – had then you would think it was a conservative party one.
Do as I say, not as I do, an underlying unprinciple of practical politics since time immemorial.
I wonder what compulsive protesters against designated inherent privilege make of this one?
No problem, the minister tasked with tackling financial crime and corruption is one of their own.
A cynic might observe that at least they understand the internal workings.
Socialists do like the life of luxury paid for by others.
The Champagne Socialists don’t you just love em. Labour the Party of the Working class
ha! bloody ha!
Well that must be re-assuring.
DS’ sub headline:
What’s with all the ‘gifted to’ and ‘was gifted’? Shirley the word you’re groping for is ‘given’.
Good point.
Not really. “Gifted” as a verb meaning “to bestow a gift” has been used in English since at least the 16th century.
Astonishing. If just one Third World family own that many expensive properties in London, how many others are now in the hands of the Third World?
No surprises here. This phenomenon is common in politics and business across Asia and the Middle East. Think opportunism, discrimination, and corruption… Is anyone really surprised by the revelations of this article? If they are then this would be truly concerning. They need to get out and about and spend more time in these other regions to better enlighten themselves.
What’s the problem? Keir-Ching! gets free suits and glasses from “Lord” Alli, plus various other “gifts” too many to mention. Tulip gets use of a free flat, via her sister, from an Aunt who is accused of corruption and embezzlement, amongst other crimes.
There’s nothing even remotely corrupt about this, or even potentially corrupt. How could you possibly think that there might be?
From the Ministerial Code of Conduct: Integrity: Holders of Public Office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
What’s that smell?
Of course if all first generation immigrants were banned from holding public office it is amazing how many problems would go away.