Labour anti-corruption minister ‘benefited from second flat gifted by ally of dictator aunt’
Tulip Siddiq lived in a second property reportedly given to her family by an ally of her aunt, the former dictator of Bangladesh.
The Treasury minister, who is responsible for tackling financial crime and corruption, lived in a flat in Hampstead, north London, after it was given to her to use by her teenage sister, Azmina.
The sisters are nieces to Sheikh Hasina, the authoritarian former prime minister of Bangladesh, who was removed from power last year after uprisings against her rule.
The latest claims come after it was reported that Ms Siddiq was given a separate flat in central London by a businessman linked to a political party led by her aunt.
The city minister is alleged to have accepted the two-bedroom apartment near King’s Cross without making a payment in 2004.
Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi lawyer who has represented Hasina’s government and has been pictured with the former prime minister, handed the Hampstead property to Azmina in 2009, according to the Sunday Times.
Land Registry documents state that the transfer was “not for money or anything that has a monetary value”. Azmina was 18 at the time and about to begin her studies at Oxford University.
On Saturday night, Downing Street insisted that the Prime Minister still has confidence in Ms Siddiq.
Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina, Ms Siddiq has been facing queries over her ties to her aunt and the latest claims will raise questions over her position.
Last month, it was alleged that Ms Siddiq’s family were being investigated by Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission over allegations of embezzlement.
She faced questions over claims that she and four family members embezzled £4 billion through a nuclear power plant deal in Bangladesh, although sources close to Ms Siddiq have dismissed the claims as false.
The Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team has questioned Ms Siddiq over the allegations.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission launched its investigation into Ms Siddiq in December, along with her mother, Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, 69, and aunt, Sheikh Hasina, 77.
Ms Siddiq has listed the Hampstead flat as her residence on several official documents.
When Ms Siddiq was appointed as a director of the Working Men’s College education institute in December 2012, she listed the property as her address on Companies House.
She did the same on becoming a trustee of the Camden Arts Centre charity in January 2014 and the Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust, another non-profit, in March 2014.
Her husband, Christian Percy, listed it as his address in May 2016, by which time Ms Siddiq had been elected as the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn.
Ms Siddiq declined to comment but a source close to the minister confirmed that she had lived at her sister’s Hampstead property for a period of time. The source added the political associations of others have nothing to do with Ms Siddiq.
Responding to claims about the King’s Cross property, a spokesman for Ms Siddiq said: “Any suggestion that Tulip Siddiq’s ownership of this property, or any other property is in any way linked to support for the Awami League would be categorically wrong.”