MP Tulip Siddiq

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HAMPSTEAD and Highgate MP Tulip Siddiq has referred herself to the parliamen­tary ethics watchdog after a bruising barrage of press stories about her financial affairs and links to the deposed regime in Bangladesh.

She insisted she had done nothing wrong in relation to properties in King’s Cross and Finchley Road but said in a letter to Sir Laurie Magnus that she would like him to investigate for the “avoidance of doubt”.

Sir Laurie, a former banker who was appointed by Rishi Sunak to be parliament’s independent ethics tsar, has the power to recommend sanctions if an MP has been found to be in breach of a conduct code.
Ms Siddiq has the full support of her neighbour­ing constituency MP, the leader of the Labour Party and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.

He said: “Tulip Siddiq has acted entirely properly by referring herself to the independent adviser, as she’s now done, and that’s why we brought into being the new code. It’s to allow ministers to ask the adviser to establish the facts, and I’ve got confidence in her, and that’s the process that will now be happening.”

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After Labour’s election win last July, he appointed her as the City Minister to work in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ team with an anti-corruption brief.

But she has faced a stream of national newspaper stories relating to her links with her aunt, Sheikh Hasina – the autocratic leader of Bangladesh who fled the country after a coup in August with her Awami League government leaving a trail of accusations over human rights abuse.

Questions have been raised about what influence Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League have had over British politics.

Ms Siddiq welcomed her aunt to her maiden parliamentary speech but insisted she has never had sway over her relation’s leadership in Bangladesh.

Her allies had said stories about her being named alongside family members in an embezzle­ment investigation over a nuclear plant infrastructure deal with Russia had been a hit job.

Attention then switched to how she was allegedly gifted flats in Camden to live in by business figures with links to Bangladesh.

“In recent weeks I have been the subject of media reporting, much of it inaccurate, about my financial affairs and my family’s links to the former government of Bangladesh,” Ms Siddiq said in her letter to Sir Laurie.

“I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”

Camden councillors were asked last year to consider a special dispensation for former mayor Nazma Rahman, a Labour councillor in West Hampstead who had missed several Town Hall meetings.

Although still collecting her council allowance, she said she was stuck in Bangladesh fearing for her family’s safety during the coup.

Her husband, Azadur Rahman Azad, was a senior Awami League organiser in Sylhet.