Only six months have passed since Sir Keir Starmer became UK prime minister.
Tulip Siddiq’s departure as Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister represents the third senior level resignation from Starmer’s administration. The first occurred in October when Sue Gray resigned as Downing Street Chief of Staff, and the second at the end of November when Louise Haigh resigned as Transport Secretary.
With economic growth stagnant and deeply right-wing anti-migrant parties taking advantage in opinion polls, it was highly foreseeable -- even in early July 2024 -- that the Labour government could ill afford a treasury minister being linked to a financial scandal.
Reports running back many years by Netra News and Private Eye have mentioned links between UK properties inhabited by Siddiq’s family members with multiple instances of corruption and cronyism in Bangladesh. The first half of last year also saw a growing number of reports within Bangladesh of corruption at the highest levels, with Siddiq’s aunt Sheikh Hasina clutching pearls amongst other things about her household servant being worth tens of millions of dollars and “not being able to move without a helicopter.”
Yet seemingly, no reputational risk was detected before Siddiq’s appointment. Inevitably though, when push came to shove, this was precisely why she resigned after the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests stated on January 14, 2025, that while he found “no evidence” of improprieties, it was regrettable Siddiq “was not more alert to the potential reputational risks.” This episode says a lot about Starmer’s lack of imagination and political instinct.
More broadly, it highlights the inconvenient truth that oligarchs from all over the world find it easy to prosper in Britain. A third of the world’s offshore wealth is controlled through the City of London or British Overseas Territories, plus even more via connected hubs in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Despite Magnitsky style legislation for Unexplained Wealth orders including powers to freeze the assets of people involved in human rights violations outside the UK, very little of this is ever applied in practice. After all, it’s not like the land once dubbed “Perfidious Albion” wants to discourage foreign investment in prime London real estate with its seductive knock-on effects for property owning voters across the land, is it?
Whatever satisfaction the interim government might derive from seeing Siddiq’s ministerial career skewered, it does not have much room for schadenfreude.
Bangladesh’s voters certainly need fuller enquiries into cases like former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury being reported by Al Jazeera as having acquired a $500m property empire in the UK, US, and Dubai, without declaring it on his Bangladesh tax returns.
Likewise the enormous sums estimated as systematically “lost” to Bangladesh via the mis-invoicing of import-export goods, warrant much deeper scrutiny.
Are similar losses occurring in comparable economies and if so, how much? Is any of this a function of outdated laws or overly rigid currency controls?
If the government could find a way to curb even half such outflows, this could prove more productive for the economy in the long run by gaining billions of dollars, regardless of whether sums stolen in the past are recovered.
Right now, especially with the UK weakened post Brexit, Starmer and Labour can ill afford even the perception of poor political judgement
As for Sir Keir Starmer, in the current political climate, with the return of President Trump threatening global trade wars, it is quite possible Siddiq’s departure might be quickly forgotten by the public at large.
So far as Labour’s hierarchy is concerned, she earned her own spurs in getting selected to replace double Oscar winner Glenda Jackson as a Hampstead MP, and is a friend and ally of the PM.
Their thinking goes that while being from a political family gave Siddiq many networks to draw upon in climbing the greasy pole of North London politics, this would not be much different to a Benn, Miliband, or her Camden council contemporary, Georgia Gould, whilst being Bangladeshi and an AL supporter to boot, would, if anything, have been more a hindrance than help.
Of course, it seems obvious Starmer should not have appointed Siddiq in the first place. Much the same goes for Sue Gray as Downing Street Chief of Staff. As a former Director of Public Prosecutions, Starmer felt affinity with the well-respected former Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary. It should have been obvious; of course the press would not go lightly hearing about a senior career civil servant with a “gold plated” pension, being anointed to such a political position at a higher salary than the PM.
So, it came to pass Gray resigned to stop being “a distraction.” This is but mere trivia though compared to the economy, with Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves under fire for failing to inspire in their first budget, where Labour’s Keynesian traditions were seemingly limited to some belated public-sector pay rises.
Despite decades of evidence of the failings of neoliberal dogma, key policies for growth have been left for corporate consultants and lobbyists to devise. This is withering away political capital on schemes which either rehash old promises by the last Tory government, or miss open goals, such as on climate change by boosting unproven corporate carbon capture schemes, at the expense of simpler “to see and feel” goals like improving insulation.
It is naive to hope that because a policy can be talked up as sensible within a Westminster bubble, it will have a positive economic impact and connect with the public.
Such lack of strategic direction was put into sharp focus by Louise Haigh, the former Transport Secretary being encouraged to resign as Transport Secretary for having pleaded guilty 11 years ago (before becoming a Sheffield MP), to mistakenly reporting her former employer’s mobile phone as missing in a report to police after she was mugged.
I know, a story which begs more questions than answers but what was noticed at the time was that she is not a close political ally of Starmer. More inexplicably still, she had just announced a popular (when delivered) boost to funding to spread “London style” bus services nationally.
A contrast somewhat with the indulgence afforded to Siddiq. But perhaps less surprising given that Starmer has defended accepting free luxury accommodation (for his son’s GCSEs) from Labour donor Lord Waheed Alli during the general election.
No doubt, this pales into insignificance compared to controversies under his predecessors as PM; Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair’s consigliere for example, was appointed as a peer after being forced to resign from the Cabinet. Twice. But right now, especially with the UK weakened post Brexit, Starmer and Labour can ill afford even the perception of poor political judgement.
Niaz Alam is London Bureau Chief, Dhaka Tribune.