U.K. minister quits amid questions over links to ousted Bangladeshi leader

LONDON — Britain’s anti-corruption minister resigned on Tuesday, bowing to mounting pressure over her links to her aunt, ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Tulip Siddiq said that she had been cleared of wrongdoing but was quitting as economic secretary to the Treasury because the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government.”

Siddiq, 42, is a former local councilor who was elected lawmaker for a north London district in 2015. She was appointed to the government after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s center-left Labour Party won a landslide election victory in July.

Starmer has been under growing pressure to remove Siddiq from her post since she referred herself to the government’s ethics watchdog in early January following reports that she lived in London properties linked to her aunt.

Starmer said he was sad to see Siddiq go, adding in a letter that the watchdog — 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.”

Starmer offered Siddiq the possibility of returning to government, saying “the door remains open to you going forward.”

Hasina was Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister and ruled the country for 15 years until August 2024, when she was ousted amid a mass uprising in which hundreds of protesters were killed and thousands were injured. Hasina, who has fled to India, faces many court cases over the deaths, including some on charges of crimes against humanity.

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.

Magnus said he accepted “at face value” Siddiq’s statement that “she had no involvement in any inter-governmental discussions between Bangladesh and Russia or any form of official role.”

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 “a lack of records and lapse of time” meant he had not seen all potentially relevant information, but added that “I have not identified evidence of improprieties” over the apartments.

Magnus concluded that Siddiq hadn’t breached ministerial standards. But he noted that 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.”