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Published : 20 Mar 2025, 01:46 AM
Former UK City minister Tulip Siddiq has accused Bangladeshi authorities of waging a “targeted and baseless” campaign against her.
In a letter to Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), lawyers representing Tulip described allegations of financial misconduct as “false and vexatious,” according to a report published by the BBC.
They argued that the claims—while widely circulated in the Bangladeshi media—had never been formally put to her by investigators.
Tulip, who resigned as economic secretary to the Treasury in January, maintained at the time that she had done nothing wrong but stepped down to avoid becoming a “distraction” for the government.
Her departure came as allegations surfaced linking her to a corruption investigation involving her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh and leader of the Awami League.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who counts Tulip as a close ally, accepted her resignation, signalling in his response that the “door remains open” for her return to government.
The allegations against Tulip stem from a broader investigation by the ACC into claims that Hasina and her associates "embezzled" up to £3.9 billion from Bangladesh’s infrastructure projects.
The accusations originated from Bobby Hajjaj, the chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement, who has alleged that Tulip facilitated a 2013 agreement with Russia that resulted in an inflated price for a nuclear power plant.
In the letter to the ACC, Tulip’s lawyers reiterated her claim that she had no involvement in the nuclear deal despite having been photographed at a signing ceremony in the Kremlin in 2013, alongside Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Her lawyers emphasised that “it is not uncommon for family members to be invited to accompany heads of state on state visits”.
They also maintained that she had no knowledge of any alleged financial improprieties.
The ACC inquiry has also raised questions about a £700,000 flat in London’s King’s Cross that was gifted to Tulip in 2004.
ACC investigators have suggested the property was acquired through "illicit funds"—a claim her lawyers dismissed as “absurd,” noting that the alleged nuclear deal in question occurred 10 years later.
Tulip had referred herself to Starmer’s ethics advisor, Sir Laurie Magnus, after corruption allegations emerged in January.
In his report, Magnus concluded that he had “not identified evidence of improprieties”.
However, he criticised her for failing to recognise the “potential reputational risks” of her familial ties to Hasina.
Magnus’s report also found that Tulip was unaware of the exact origins of her King’s Cross property, initially believing it had been purchased by her parents.
She later corrected the record upon assuming a ministerial position, an oversight Magnus described as an “unfortunate misunderstanding”.
In the letter, Tulip’s lawyers said Abdul Motalif, who is "a close family friend and like a godfather to her", gave her the King's Cross flat.
Beyond the nuclear plant allegations, the ACC has accused Tulip of being involved in the appropriation of land in Dhaka—claims her legal representatives categorically denied.
The ongoing media briefings from Bangladeshi authorities, they said, represent an “unacceptable attempt to interfere with UK politics”.
“At no point have any allegations been put to her fairly, properly and transparently, or indeed at all, by the ACC or anyone else with proper authority on behalf of the Bangladeshi government,” the letter stated.
It demanded that investigators submit any questions to Tulip by Mar 25, or risk the presumption that there are “no legitimate questions to answer”.
The ACC has responded in a letter to Tulip’s lawyers, asserting that she had “spent most of her adult life residing in homes owned by cronies of the notoriously venal Awami League”.
A spokesman for the ACC cast doubt on her claims of being unaware of Hasina’s alleged corruption, calling them “strained credulity”.
The commission’s chairman, Mohammad Abdul Momen, stood by the integrity of the investigation.
“All allegations raised against Tulip will be proven in any court, including the ones in the United Kingdom,” he told The Times.
