Politics
UK’s Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq, responsible for tackling financial crime, lived in a Hampstead flat gifted to her family by an ally of her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the recently ousted prime minister of Bangladesh, reports UK-based newspaper The Sunday Times.
Moin Ghani, a Bangladeshi lawyer who has represented Hasina’s government, transferred the property on Finchley Road to Tulip’s younger sister, Azmina, in 2009. Land Registry documents show the transfer was made “not for money or anything that has a monetary value,” The Sunday Times found.
Azmina, who was 18 at the time, later sold the flat in 2021 for $650,000.
Tulip, 42, used the property as her address on official documents during her time as a director of the Working Men’s College and a trustee of various non-profits between 2012 and 2014. Her husband, Christian Percy, also listed the flat as his address until 2016, by which time Tulip had become the Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn, The Sunday Times reported.
The flat’s prior owner, Ghani, has a long history of advising Hasina’s government and has publicly praised her leadership.
Tulip’s spokesperson told The Sunday Times that she lived in her sister’s flat for a period, adding that such arrangements are common among family members and that the political affiliations of others have “nothing” to do with Tulip.
Tulip given London flat by developer with links to AL: FT report
Tulip herself has also denied any wrongdoing and described allegations against her as politically motivated.
She remains a close ally of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has expressed confidence in her integrity.
LINKS TO HASINA’S REGIME
The disclosures have drawn fresh scrutiny on Tulip’s ties to Hasina’s government, which was ousted last year amid allegations of corruption, human rights abuses, and the deaths of hundreds of protesters.
The Hampstead flat is one of several properties linked to Tulip’s family and Awami League members.
The Financial Times recently revealed that another London property—a King’s Cross flat—was gifted to Tulip in 2004 by Abdul Motalif, an associate of senior Awami League members.
Abdul Motalif confirmed to the Financial Times in a phone call that he bought the King’s Cross property but declined to comment on what he did with it.
“Following financial support provided by Tulip’s parents to an acquaintance during a challenging time in his life, he subsequently transferred a property he then owned into Tulip’s ownership as an act of gratitude for her parents’ support,” said a person familiar with the matter.
“Any suggestion that Tulip Siddiq’s ownership of this property, or any other property is in any way linked to support for the Awami League, would be categorically wrong,” a spokesperson for the minister said.
Tulip currently resides in a £2.1 million property in Finchley, north London, owned by Abdul Karim Nazim, a UK-based member of the Awami League’s executive committee. Nazim began renting the property to Tulip in 2022, reads The Sunday Times report.
Tulip’s spokesperson stated that she and her husband pay market rent for the property and that their housing arrangements are above board.
FURTHER FAMILY TIES
The Sunday Times further detailed that Tulip’s mother Sheikh Rehana lives in a £1.2 million property in Golders Green, reportedly owned through an offshore trust by Shayan Rahman, son of (Salman F Rahman) a billionaire Bangladeshi politician and former adviser to Hasina. Rahman’s family has faced legal troubles since Hasina’s ousting, with his father currently in custody in Bangladesh.
Another Hampstead property, where Tulip’s sister and mother once resided, was owned by Kazi Zafarullah, a senior Awami League member who was jailed in 2007 for extortion. The property was sold in 2012 for $499,000. Zafarullah was later implicated in offshore financial dealings and remains in prison.
