Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to sack anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq after she was named in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch posted on X on Saturday that it was time for Siddiq to be sacked, adding the PM had “appointed his personal friend as anti-corruption minister and she is accused herself of corruption”.
Siddiq was appointed economic secretary to the Treasury last July and her responsibilities include tackling corruption in UK financial markets.
The 42-year-old MP for Hampstead and Highgate has referred herself to the PM’s standards adviser and insists she has done nothing wrong.
It comes as Bangladesh’s new leader, Muhammad Yunus, told the Sunday Times Siddiq should apologise after reports she had lived in London properties with links to her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of Bangladesh last year and is at the centre of a corruption probe.
In a letter to Sir Laurie Magnus, who polices standards among government ministers, Siddiq said: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle was asked on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show whether the minister should keep her job.
He said: “Tulip has referred herself to the authorities to be investigated. That needs to be completed. But the thing you can guarantee with this government and Keir Starmer as prime minister, is he will abide to the outcome of that inquiry.”
Downing Street previously confirmed Sir Laurie would now conduct a “fact-finding” exercise to determine if “further action” was needed, including a further investigation.
Badenoch said Siddiq had become “a distraction when the government should be focused on dealing with the financial problems it has created”.
She added: “Now the government of Bangladesh is raising serious concerns about her links to the regime of Sheikh Hasina”.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Bangladesh’s leader said that properties used by Siddiq should be investigated and handed back to his government if they were gained through “plain robbery”.
Siddiq is economic secretary to the Treasury and responsible for tackling economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance.
The allegations are part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, and was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.
Since fleeing the country Sheikh Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.
In her letter to Sir Laurie Magnus following the allegations Siddiq said: “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.”
“I am clear that I have done nothing wrong,” she said, adding: “However, for the avoidance of doubt, I would like you to independently establish the facts about these matters.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir told reporters he had confidence in his minister, adding Siddiq had “acted entirely properly” by referring herself for investigation.