Labour’s Tulip Siddiq has been found guilty by a Bangladesh court of influencing ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina her aunt, to obtain plots of land on the outskirts of Dhaka.
When Labour won power in July, Siddiq was appointed economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister. However, less than five months into her ministerial role, she was named in an investigation into whether her Bangladeshi family embezzled nearly £4bn from energy and major infrastructure deals.
Hasina’s aunt is the ousted Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, who, last year, was sentenced to death but fled to India before she could be arrested.
The investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission was being carried out on the instruction of the country’s new government, a political opponent of Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina.
At the time of the story in December 2024, a Labour source told City AM that Siddiq has not been contacted directly on the matter.
However, a month later, the Financial Times revealed that she had reportedly been given a two-bedroom flat near King’s Cross in 2004, free of charge, by a developer with links to the Awami League, the party led by her aunt.
On 6 January, amid growing scrutiny over property holdings and links to the former Bangladeshi regime, she referred herself to the government’s adviser on ministerial standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, while denying any wrongdoing.
Although Sir Laurie Magnus concluded that Siddiq had not breached the Ministerial Code, he advised Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reconsider her responsibilities.
On 14 January, 2025, Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Highgate, resigned, saying she had become “a distraction” from the government’s agenda.
Criminal charges
In a criminal trial in Bangladesh, she was accused of obtaining three plots of land from her aunt, the country’s former prime minister, through “abuse of power and influence” for family members in the diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka.
On Monday, the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court found her guilty of influencing the ousted prime minister to obtain plots of land on the outskirts of Dhaka.
Siddiq, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, has called the trial “a persecution and a farce”.
She was tried in absentia, meaning a trial was held without the accused being present. The UK also does not have an extradition treaty in place with Bangladesh.
It was reported on the news of the sentence, Siddiq said “the whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end”.
“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified,” she added. “I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves.”