TDS Desk:

Tulip Siddiq, Minister of the ruling Labour Party in the United Kingdom, has been interviewed by the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics team over allegations that she helped her family to embezzle up to £3.9 billion from a nuclear energy project in Bangladesh.

Tulip, the economic secretary to the Treasury, is accused of helping her aunt, the recently deposed former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, to broker a corrupt deal with Russia for the power plant.

Tulip, who is a friend of Sir Keir Starmer and represents his neighbouring constituency of Hampstead & Highgate, agreed to attend a meeting with a representative of the propriety and ethics team (PET). On Thursday she welcomed the official to her office and gave her response to allegations about her involvement in the £10 billion Rooppur power plant project.

Her explanation about the Russia deal was accepted at face value and the fact that she held the meeting does not indicate that there is any kind of civil service investigation into her.

Siddiq was unavailable for comment. The Cabinet Office said: “As previously stated, the minister has denied any involvement.”

Siddiq is alleged to have been involved in brokering the 2013 deal with Russia, in which large sums of cash are said to have been embezzled. The same year she posed for a picture with President Putin and her aunt at a signing ceremony for the deal.

Photo: Collected

As economic secretary to the Treasury, she is responsible for tackling corruption in the UK’s financial markets.

Sources close to her say that allegations that she co-ordinated meetings between Bangladeshi and Russian officials are “trumped-up charges” and “completely politically motivated”.

She is said to have repeated this view — and her belief that she is the victim of a “political hit job” — during her discussion with the PET official.

According to a source, she explained that she visited Moscow more than a decade ago to see her aunt because it was easier to fly to Russia than Bangladesh.

However, on Saturday the Daily Mail said that fresh questions had been raised over a $1 billion arms deal that was also signed at the meeting.

The Mail said that Hasina signed a deal for a $1 billion loan to Bangladesh to buy Russian weapons and military equipment.

Siddiq was a Labour councillor at the time and became an MP in 2015. A party spokesman told the Mail: “The dealings of two countries from two years before Tulip became an MP have absolutely nothing to do with her.”

Siddiq, 42, has previously said that she only posed for Putin after he said: “Is your family here? I’d like a picture.”

The Mail on Sunday reported that Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had a team of five officials gathering “documentary evidence” relating to Siddiq and others, and was likely to write to them within weeks.

Depending on Siddiq’s response, investigators will then decide whether to issue first information reports, which would make her an official suspect and give Bangladeshi police powers to arrest her.

It is understood that Siddiq has not yet been contacted by any of the relevant authorities.

In response to the investigation by the ACC, Starmer said that Siddiq retained his confidence. His spokesman said there was a “very clear declaration process” for ministers, which had been followed. One source said that the prime minister remained “generally warm” to her.

It is understood that while he was aware of her meeting the PET official, he did not insist upon it himself. However, the fact she has seen PET suggests that No 10 is taking the matter seriously.

A source said that officials were nervous about the potential for further embarrassment arising from her close relationship with Hasina, who, since being ousted, has been accused of crimes against humanity, including killing hundreds of protesters.

She does not deny being close to Hasina, and previously praised her aunt as a “great role model”.

Hasina, the leader of Bangladesh’s Awami League political party, fled to India in August following an uprising. She is regarded by her critics as an autocrat and has been accused of multiple crimes.