A cabinet minister has defended the government’s handling of the investigation into Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq before her resignation on Tuesday.
Siddiq resigned after the prime minister’s Standards Adviser Sir Laurie Magnus ruled she had not broken the ministerial code but had “inadvertently misled” the public about a flat gifted by an ally of her aunt, Bangladesh’s ousted former prime minister.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the prime minister “dithered and delayed to protect” her.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said the investigation was proof an enhanced independent process for assessing ministerial standards “is working”.
On BBC Breakfast, Jones argued the investigation “happened very quickly, and the process has been followed properly – that’s good for government”.
Jones said the investigation was “more effective and efficient” due to Sir Keir Starmer’s reforms to the standards advisor’s role.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “What is clear is that our new independent process is working.”
Jones said he would be happy to see Siddiq return to government saying, “there is no question of improper behaviour on her part”.
“The prime minister has been clear the decision to step down was hers, and it was the right one under the circumstances.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride argued the prime minister “should actually have stepped in and brought this to a head rather earlier”.
He said it was “troubling…that it’s taken so long for it to come to this obvious conclusion”.
Sir Laurie spent eight days investigating the allegations after Siddiq referred herself to the standards watchdog.
It comes after press reports raised questions about a flat in King’s Cross, North London, owned by Siddiq.
Siddiq, whose role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury included tackling corruption in UK financial markets, was named last month in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
Her aunt is the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, head of the Awami League, who fled into exile after being deposed last year.
Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, also came under intense scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.
The Financial Times reported that the flat had been given to her by a person connected with the recently ousted Bangladeshi government.
In his letter to the PM, Sir Laurie says Siddiq “acknowledges that, over an extended period, she was unaware of the origins of her ownership of her flat in King’s Cross, despite having signed a Land Registry transfer form relating to the gift at the time”.
He says the MP “remained under the impression that her parents had given the flat to her, having purchased it from the previous owner”.
This had led to the public being “inadvertently misled” about the identity of the donor of the flat, added Sir Laurie.
According to the Mail on Sunday, in 2022 she had denied the flat was a gift and insisted her parents had bought it for her and had threatened the paper with legal action preventing publication of a story.
Labour sources subsequently told the newspaper the flat had been gifted to Siddiq by a property developer with alleged links to her aunt.
In his letter, Sir Laurie said this was an “unfortunate misunderstanding” which had led to Siddiq issuing a public correction of “the origins of her ownership after she became a minister”.
In a letter accepting Siddiq’s resignation, Sir Keir said the “door remains open” for her.
Writing on X, Kemi Badenoch said: “It was clear at the weekend that the anti-corruption minister’s position was completely untenable. Yet Keir Starmer dithered and delayed to protect his close friend.
“Even now, as Bangladesh files a criminal case against Tulip Siddiq, he expresses ‘sadness’ at her inevitable resignation.”
