Free flat: Tulip Siddique under new pressure
Last Updated on January 7, 2025 6:36 am
Tulip Siddique, a minister for Britain’s ruling Labour Party, is under increasing scrutiny after reports emerged that she received a free flat in London from people close to the party of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In a report on Saturday (January 4), Bloomberg reported that Tulip Siddique is expected to come under more pressure over the incident of buying a two-bedroom apartment without spending any money.
The media outlet said that UK City Minister Tulip Siddique is coming under increasing scrutiny after reports emerged that she received a gift of a property in central London from a developer linked to the former Bangladesh government.
According to a report by the Financial Times on Friday, citing UK land registry documents, Tulip received a flat in London’s Kings Cross in 2004 without paying any money. The flat was given to her in 2004.
It also said that Tulip Siddique is currently the UK’s Economic Secretary for the Treasury, responsible for curbing corruption in the country’s financial sector. She is the daughter of Sheikh Rehana, the sister of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina.
According to the Financial Times’ investigation, the flat was bought in 2001 by a man named Abdul Motalif. It was bought for 195,000 pounds (about 293,000 taka against the pound at the current exchange rate).
The current price of the flat is not mentioned in the document. However, another flat in the same building was sold for 650,000 pounds (about 979,000 taka) last August.
A person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that Tulip’s parents helped real estate businessman Abdul Motalif financially during his difficult times. So, in gratitude, he gave Tulip an ‘asset’ he owned.
Abdul Motalif currently lives in southeast London. Voter registration records show that another person named Mojibul Islam lives at Motalif’s address in that area. Mojibul’s father was an elected member of parliament from the Awami League in Bangladesh from 2014 to 2024.
Abdul Motalif admitted to buying the King’s Cross flat to the Financial Times. However, he did not want to say anything about what he did with it later.
A spokesperson for Tulip claimed to the Financial Times that the news of the Awami League’s involvement in Tulip’s acquisition of the flat was ‘incorrect’.
Earlier, Tulip Siddique was questioned by UK Cabinet Office officials on charges of embezzling £4 billion from Bangladesh’s nuclear power project. However, Tulip Siddique denied the allegations against him.
Source: Bloomberg