City minister Tulip Siddiq named in second Bangladesh corruption probe

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British Cities Minister Tulip Siddiq has been named in another investigation by authorities in Bangladesh as she fights calls from charities to step down from her anti-corruption role.

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has alleged that Siddiq tried to pressure his aunt, the country’s former leader Sheikh Hasina, to award plots of land in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone to Siddiq’s mother and two siblings.

Investigators have alleged that Sheikh Hasina, while in office, used senior officials at Dhaka’s development authority RAJUK to allocate about a hectare of land to herself and her two children in the capital’s Purbachal New Town Project.

“When she became aware of . project to her mother Ms Rehana Siddique, her sister Ms Azmina Siddique and her brother Mr Radwan Mujib Siddique,” the ACC said in a report released on Monday detailing the allegations. The report claimed that Sheikh Rehana was allotted a plot in 2022.

The investigation is separate from an earlier probe into allegations that Siddiq and several other family members benefited from a $12 billion Bangladesh government deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant. The family has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Siddiq has been a Labor MP since 2015 and is a close ally of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Siddiq last week referred himself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards.

“Tulip has self-reported to the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards to independently establish the facts of these matters,” a spokesman for Siddiq said on Tuesday. “She realizes she has done nothing wrong.”

Downing Street said on Tuesday that Magnus would return “shortly”.

Sheikh Rehana – Sheikh Hasina’s only living sibling and a key political figure in the ousted administration – Radwan Mujib Siddique and Azmina Siddique could not immediately be reached for comment. Sheikh Hasina and her children, Sajeeb Wazed and Saima Wazed, also could not immediately be reached.

Sheikh Hasina’s regime was toppled last summer after a student-led protest was initially met with violent repression by security forces, leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

The former Bangladeshi leader denied last month that she had ordered security forces to use lethal force against protesters and claimed the accusations against her were “false propaganda”.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed last month dismissed the investigation into the nuclear power plant, telling Reuters that it was “not possible to take away billions from a $10 billion project (the nuclear deal). . . . none of us have ever seen this kind of money”.

Siddiq has faced calls from Britain’s opposition Conservative Party to step down from her post at the Treasury, while anti-corruption charities have said her current role is untenable.

The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition – which includes groups such as Oxfam, Transparency International and Spotlight on Corruption – said in a statement on Monday that Siddiq should hand over responsibility for fighting economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance to another government minister.

Siddiq currently had a “serious conflict of interest” due to direct family ties to a deposed regime, which may be investigated by British authorities, the coalition said.

“The UK has a historic responsibility to support the new interim government in Bangladesh, to ensure a democratic transition and to recover stolen assets, not least because some of these assets may be hidden in the UK itself,” the coalition added.

Starmer’s spokesman said on Monday that the prime minister retained “full confidence” in Siddiq.