Who is Tulip Siddiq, niece of deposed Bangladeshi PM who quit Treasury role?
When Keir Starmer became the Labour leader in 2020, Tulip Siddiq described him in her local paper as a “good friend through thick and thin”.On Tuesday, she found out where the limits of that friendship lay after the prime minister accepted her resignation from the government after weeks of revelations about Siddiq’s closeness to her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh.“It is with sadness I accept your resignation from your ministerial role,” the prime minister wrote in an otherwise effusive letter praising her achievements.Starmer’s bond with his Labour colleague and constituency neighbour in north London may have protected her over the past few weeks as revelations mounted about her links with her aunt’s deposed regime.However, experts say her family background was always likely to pose a problem for her role in the British government, not least because her ministerial responsibilities included anti-corruption policy.
David Bergman, a Dhaka-based investigative journalist, said: “The reason Siddiq should have resigned was her significant moral lapse in failing to dissociate herself as the Bangladesh Awami League government led by her aunt which became increasingly authoritarian since 2013.”Siddiq was born in London but her history is indelibly bound up with Bangladesh.Her grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the country’s first leader after its bloody war of independence against Pakistan.Mujib was assassinated in 1975 along with his three sons – but not his two daughters, who were on holiday in Germany.The older daughter, Hasina, returned to Bangladesh, where she became prime minister in 2009.
Rehana, the younger, fled to London where she gained asylum, eventually giving birth to Siddiq.Siddiq grew up in both London and Dhaka, and as a young person met Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Mother Teresa alongside her aunt.She joined the Labour party aged 16 and worked for a range of organisations including Amnesty International and Save the Children.Around this time however she was also working for her aunt’s party, describing herself as a “spokesperson” for the Awami League in the UK.According to a now-deleted section of her website, she worked “as part of [the party’s] UK and EU lobbying unit and election strategy team”.
In 2013, she was pictured alongside her aunt meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow.She insists she travelled to the Russian capital merely to meet her aunt, but Bangladeshi officials are now investigating whether she brokered a deal between the two countries for a nuclear power plant at an inflated price.They allege the deal allowed her family members to embezzle billions of pounds’ worth of public money.Two years later, Siddiq was elected to parliament for the Labour party, a victory for which she credited local activists for the Awami League.“Had it not been for your help, I would never have been able to stand here as a British MP,” she said soon afterwards at a party rally in London which her aunt also attended.
She has also been pictured multiple times introducing her aunt to British politicians, including the former Commons speaker John Bercow,In 2020, she nominated Starmer for the leadership of her party and was rewarded for her support with a job in the shadow education team,In 2021 she was promoted to the shadow Treasury team – taking the role into government when Labour won the election last year,Throughout her career, Siddiq had faced questions about links to her aunt’s government, especially in its later years when it was accused of locking up its political opponents,But those questions re-emerged last summer when her aunt was deposed after days of student-led protests in Dhaka.
Officials in the new Bangladeshi government launched a inquiry into corruption at the heart of Sheikh Hasina’s regime.Details also emerged about a series of properties she had lived in or owned which had been paid for by people connected to the Awami League.Siddiq has maintained her innocence throughout, insisting her relationship with her aunt has always been personal rather than political.But earlier this month, senior officials in Downing Street told her to refer herself to Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests.While Magnus was deliberating, senior government sources admitted she was likely to have to resign whether or not she was found to have broken the ministerial code.
In the end Magnus did not find she had broken the code, though he said there were still many questions about the accusations against her,Siddiq voluntarily stood aside, though a return to ministerial duties appears to be a possibility,“You have made a difficult decision,” Starmer wrote in response to her resignation,“[I] want to be clear that the door remains open for you going forward,”
Bank of England delays rules designed to avoid banking crash by a year
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IMF upgrades UK growth forecast and takes swipe at Trump plans
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Can Donald Trump circumvent a TikTok ban?
As the app is on the brink of being expelled, the president-elect has been working to make good on his pledge to save itIn the run-up to the election, Donald Trump made a plea to his followers. “FOR ALL THOSE THAT WANT TO SAVE TIK TOK IN AMERICA, VOTE TRUMP!” he posted to his Truth Social account in September. Since then, he’s been working to make good on that pledge.He hosted TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in December, implored the US supreme court to delay a TikTok ban and he’s now reportedly considering an executive order to postpone the app’s disappearance. Chew is slated to join Trump at his inauguration in what appears to be a show of solidarity with the embattled executive
Russian hackers target WhatsApp accounts of ministers worldwide
Russian state-linked hackers have targeted the WhatsApp accounts of government ministers and officials around the world with emails inviting them to join user groups on the messaging app.The WhatsApp tactic marks a new approach by a hacking unit called Star Blizzard. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has linked Star Blizzard to Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB, and has accused it of seeking to “undermine trust in politics in the UK and likeminded states”.According to a blogpost by Microsoft, victims receive an email from an attacker impersonating a US government official, enticing the recipient to click on a QR code that gives the attacker access to their WhatsApp account. The code, instead of giving access to a WhatsApp group, connects an account to a linked device or the WhatsApp Web portal
Draper delighted hard work paying off after hat-trick of Melbourne marathons
Jack Draper says his trio of five-set victories at the Australian Open are evidence of the hard work he has put into his career, effort that is finally paying off for him in the biggest matches.“I still have a long way to go, but this is a huge drive forward, the fact that I’ve come through three five-set matches, mentally and physically, it doesn’t happen often,” said Draper. “That’s a testament to the work I’ve done and the place I’m in. So very, very proud of that.”At 12:55am on Saturday morning in Melbourne, Draper, the 15th seed, closed out his third five-set win in as many matches to reach the fourth round with a 6-4, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (8) victory over Aleksandar Vukic of Australia
Windsor embraces return of jumps racing with cash at the Million festival
When Windsor staged what was billed as its last ever jumps meeting in December 1998, the final race on the card was the Norwegian Blue Handicap Hurdle – a clear sign that as far as the track was concerned, jumping was no more. It had ceased to be.A generation later, though, it is suddenly showing distinct signs of life. There were just under 5,000 racegoers at Windsor last month for the first officially scheduled jumps meeting for 26 years, and the queues at the turnstiles on Friday – the first of two days as part of the first Berkshire Million festival, with the Clarence House Chase card at Ascot as the meat in the sandwich – suggested plenty of those fans had come back for more.There was a total of £18,299 in win prize money on offer for the seven races in 1998
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