UK City Minister Quits After Ethics Probe Into Bangladeshi Links

(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s City minister Tulip Siddiq resigned from the government following an ethics review into allegations around her use and receipt of properties linked to the ousted Bangladeshi regime.

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“It is clear that continuing in my role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of the government,” she said in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer published on Tuesday. “I want to assure you that I acted and have continued to act with full transparency.”

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Siddiq — whose portfolio in government included areas such as financial services policy, banking, fintech, capital markets and combating financial corruption — had come under pressure to quit after accusations that she’d benefited from properties that may have been acquired with funds embezzled by the regime of Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt. Siddiq referred herself to the government’s independent adviser on ministerial interests to review the matter, and stepped down after the adviser’s verdict was published.

Starmer will hope Siddiq’s departure draws a line under the affair, which had become a source of negative media coverage. Britain’s premier has seen his popularity ratings plunge since sweeping to power at last year’s general election, and is battling against economic difficulties that have cast doubt over the future of his finance minister Rachel Reeves.

Siddiq has been replaced in her ministerial role by Emma Reynolds, who until May last year was chief lobbyist for TheCityUK, a trade group representing banks in London’s financial center.

‘Sadness’

Laurie Magnus, the adviser on ministerial interests, said that Siddiq hadn’t breached Britain’s ministerial code, but found that it was “regrettable” that Siddiq was “not more alert to the potential reputational risks — both to her and the government — arising from her close family’s association with Bangladesh.” He advised Starmer he would “want to consider her ongoing responsibilities in the light of this.”

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Starmer said he accepted Siddiq’s resignation with “sadness” and that Magnus’s review had found “no evidence of financial improprieties on your part.”

“I appreciate that to end ongoing distraction from delivering our agenda to change Britain, you have made a difficult decision and want to be clear that the door remains open for you going forward,” Starmer wrote in his letter to Siddiq.

Starmer had been facing growing calls to dismiss Siddiq, one of his parliamentary allies whose constituency is next to the prime minister’s in north London, given the ongoing property allegations and their potential conflict with her role fighting corruption. Her resignation is the latest high-profile departure from Starmer’s government, after former transport secretary Louise Haigh quit last year over an old fraud conviction and former chief of staff Sue Gray also left his team.

(Updates with further details from sixth paragraph.)

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