Tulip Siddiq was gifted London flat by Awami League-linked developer

A two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross was given to the UK’s city minister in 2004 without a payment, the Financial Times reports

Tulip Siddiq, who is serving as the UK’s economic secretary to the Treasury and its city minister, received an apartment in central London from a developer linked to the Awami League, reports UK-based publication the Financial Times.

Siddiq, the niece of ousted former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was given the two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross in 2004 without a payment, FT says citing Land Registry filings.

The donor was Abdul Motalif, a developer with ties to the Awami League.

The property, which is still owned by Tulip, was purchased for £195,000 in 2001. A neighbouring flat in the building sold for £650,000.

“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,” a spokesperson for Tulip told the FT.

Motalif confirmed his purchase of the property to the FT, but declined to comment on what he did with it. He lives in south-east London and Companies House filings show him as the owner of a now-dissolved small property services company.

Motalif had previously allowed Moin Ghani, a lawyer who represented the Awami League government, to live in the flat before giving it to Tulip.

Motalif also shared a residential address in London with Mojibul Islam, the son of a former Awami League MP, between 2014 and 2024.

“⁠Following financial support provided by Tulip’s parents to an acquaintance during a challenging time in his life, he subsequently transferred a property he then owned into Tulip’s ownership as an act of gratitude for her parents’ support,” a source familiar with the matter told the FT.

The FT reports that electoral roll data shows that Tulip lived in the gifted apartment in the early 2000s and her siblings resided there for several years afterwards.

The apartment was gifted to Tulip before she became an MP, which meant she was not required to disclose it.

Tulip, who holds a post in the UK government that tasks her with taking measures against money laundering and illegal finance, has also been accused in a graft probe by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangladesh.

The allegations say that Tulip, alongside other members of her family, took a cut of the Russia-backed Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. She has since denied the claims.