Minister Tulip Siddiq caught up in Bangladesh court anti-corruption probe

Published

5 months ago

December 19, 2024

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Labour’s anti-corruption minister has been named in court documents detailing claims her family embezzled billions of pounds from a nuclear power project in Bangladesh.

Economic secretary Tulip Siddiq – who holds responsibility for financial crime and illicit finance – is alleged to have helped co-ordinate meetings with the Russian government regarding the Rooppur nuclear power plant project.

In a court writ seen by Sky News, submitted to the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Ms Siddiq is named alongside her aunt, the former prime minister of Bangladesh Shaikh Hasina.

The documents cite an online news report from August and suggest Ms Siddiq received embezzled funds that came from the artificial inflation of construction costs of the power plant – which was mainly funded by the Russian government.

It’s alleged that $5bn (£3.9bn) was siphoned off from the project’s budget “in collusion with Russian officials”.

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Ms Siddiq has been approached for a response.

The Labour Party and the government declined to comment.

It’s understood that the minister has not been approached by Bangladeshi authorities in relation to the allegations.

A party source suggested the accusations originated from a “spurious American aerospace website”.

Downing Street said Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in Ms Siddiq.

The legal claim has been made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.

Hasina fled Bangladesh in August and resigned as prime minister after a total of twenty years in power.

Her departure followed weeks of deadly protests in the country and the new government has accused Hasina of multiple crimes while in office.

Ms Siddiq was photographed with Hasina in 2013 at a signing ceremony in the Kremlin alongside the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She was a councillor in the London Borough of Camden at the time.

The Associated Press quoted Russian news agencies reporting that Moscow planned to lend Bangladesh a total of $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to finance the building of nuclear power stations and to buy Russian arms.

The PM’s official spokesperson said Ms Siddiq had “denied any involvement in the claims” of embezzlement and continued to maintain her responsibility as a minister overseeing UK anti-corruption efforts.

Pressed about whether there was any conflict of interest in Ms Siddiq’s involvement in a 2013 Bangladeshi deal with Russia over a nuclear power plant and her ministerial role, the spokesman said: “I can’t speak to events that happened prior to a minister’s time in government.”

Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi Awami League Party – which Sheikh Hasina continues to lead – for comment.

A spokesperson for the party has been quoted saying the embezzlement claims are “fabricated”.

Politics

‘No doubt’ UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

Published

3 hours ago

May 31, 2025

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'No doubt' UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence in next parliament, defence secretary says

There is “no doubt” the UK “will spend 3% of our GDP on defence” in the next parliament, the defence secretary has said.

John Healey’s comments come ahead of the publication of the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on Monday.

This is an assessment of the state of the armed forces, the threats facing the UK, and the military transformation required to meet them.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously set out a “clear ambition” to raise defence spending to 3% in the next parliament “subject to economic and fiscal conditions”.

Mr Healey has now told The Times newspaper there is a “certain decade of rising defence spending” to come, adding that this commitment “allows us to plan for the long term. It allows us to deal with the pressures.”

A government source insisted the defence secretary was “expressing an opinion, which is that he has full confidence that the government will be able to deliver on its ambition”, rather than making a new commitment.

The UK currently spends 2.3% of GDP on defence, with Sir Keir announcing plans to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 in February.

This followed mounting pressure from the White House for European nations to do more to take on responsibility for their own security and the defence of Ukraine.

The 2.3% to 2.5% increase is being paid for by controversial cuts to the international aid budget, but there are big questions over where the funding for a 3% rise would be found, given the tight state of government finances.

While a commitment will help underpin the planning assumptions made in the SDR, there is of course no guarantee a Labour government would still be in power during the next parliament to have to fulfil that pledge.

A statement from the Ministry of Defence makes it clear that the official government position has not changed in line with the defence secretary’s comments.

The statement reads: “This government has announced the largest sustained increase to defence spending since the end of the Cold War – 2.5% by 2027 and 3% in the next parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow, including an extra £5bn this financial year.

“The SDR will rightly set the vision for how that uplift will be spent, including new capabilities to put us at the leading edge of innovation in NATO, investment in our people and making defence an engine for growth across the UK – making Britain more secure at home and strong abroad.”

Sir Keir commissioned the review shortly after taking office in July 2024. It is being led by Lord Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary and NATO secretary general.

The Ministry of Defence has already trailed a number of announcements as part of the review, including plans for a new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command and a £1bn battlefield system known as the Digital Targeting Web, which we’re told will “better connect armed forces weapons systems and allow battlefield decisions for targeting enemy threats to be made and executed faster”.

On Saturday, the defence secretary announced a £1.5bn investment to tackle damp, mould and make other improvements to poor quality military housing in a bid to improve recruitment and retention.

Mr Healey pledged to “turn round what has been a national scandal for decades”, with 8,000 military family homes currently unfit for habitation.

He said: “The Strategic Defence Review, in the broad, will recognise that the fact that the world is changing, threats are increasing.

“In this new era of threat, we need a new era for defence and so the Strategic Defence Review will be the vision and direction for the way that we’ve got to strengthen our armed forces to make us more secure at home, stronger abroad, but also learn the lessons from Ukraine as well.

“So an armed forces that can be more capable of innovation more quickly, stronger to deter the threats that we face and always with people at the heart of our forces… which is why the housing commitments that we make through this strategic defence review are so important for the future.”