Europe/Russia UK Minister Tulip Siddiq faces pressure to step back from anti-corruption work

Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq is facing claims that she helped her family to embezzle £4 billion from the Rooppur nuclear power plant project​

News Desk
bdnews24.com
Published : 30 Dec 2024, 03:41 PM
Updated : 30 Dec 2024, 03:41 PM


The UK Conservative Party is urging Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq to step back from anti-corruption work amid claims she helped her family embezzle £4 billion from the Rooppur nuclear power plant project, the Daily Mail reports.

The Rooppur nuclear power plant was built in Bangladesh by Russian state-owned company Rosatom.

However, the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation, overseen by Tulip, imposed at least 45 financial sanctions on companies and individuals linked to Rosatom over the war on Ukraine.

Hampstead MP Tulip reviews the measures against Rosatom subsidiaries regularly.

“Keir Starmer must ensure Tulip is recused from all sanctions and anti-corruption policy decisions immediately while questions about her personal dealings remain unanswered,” Tory Home Affairs spokesman Matt Vickers said on Sunday.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Bangladesh says the alleged embezzlement was done between 2009 and 2023 while Tulip’s aunt Sheikh Hasina ruled as Bangladesh’s prime minister.

After stepping down in the face of a mass uprising on Aug 5, Hasina fled to India with Tulip’s mother Sheikh Rehana.

Bangladesh's High Court has heard claims Tulip, 42, may have helped to “broker” the nuclear plant deal, worth a total £10 billion.

The deal was signed in the Kremlin in 2013 by Hasina and Vladimir Putin in the presence of Tulip, who was then a Labour councillor.

The ACC is also investigating Tulip’s mother, 69, her ex-PM aunt, 77, and two other relatives. They are alleged to have siphoned off £3.9 billion through fake companies and Malaysian bank accounts.

Tulip and three of her relatives were also part of a new corruption probe over a separate £1.4 billion allegedly siphoned from eight government projects Bangladesh.

Tulip has vehemently denied all the allegations, with Labour officials saying no evidence has been presented to support any of the claims.

However, an official from the Cabinet Office's Propriety and Ethics Team interviewed Tulip over the allegations, which she reportedly described “politically-motivated”.

The ACC has ordered the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to supply “documents and statements of offshore bank accounts” belonging to Tulip and four others.

The Treasury declined to comment on her continued role in charge of its Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation.