Tulip exposes allegations of campaigning for Starmer against Hasina and her party
Last Updated on January 11, 2025 5:50 am
The party of ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the aunt of Labour Party minister Tulip Siddique, has been accused of campaigning for UK Prime Ministerial candidate Sir Keir Starmer in the UK election, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph.
The Telegraph reported that activists representing the UK branch of Bangladesh’s Awami League, the sister of former Prime Minister and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, hosted a fundraising dinner for the prime minister while she was in the shadow cabinet.
Hasina fled to India after being ousted in August 2024 after 15 years in power. During her tenure, there have been allegations of attacks, arrests and secret extrajudicial killings of opponents. The Awami League has a UK branch, whose members have campaigned for Siddique in the past.
In 2019, prominent activists including Awami League organising secretary Abdul Ahad Chowdhury campaigned for Sir Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, which is also adjacent to Siddique’s Hampstead seat. Awami League activists handed out Labour leaflets with Starmer’s name on them door to door and carried placards supporting his party.
They also campaigned for Tulip Siddique on the same day. The campaign team included activists who have publicly identified themselves as Awami League supporters. Party members said Starmer had met Abdul Ahad Chowdhury at a restaurant during a fundraising drive. He also posted a picture of himself shaking hands with Starmer on the day of the UK general election in July last year, with the caption: “The future Prime Minister, the Honourable Keir Starmer.”
It is not clear when the picture was taken. While campaigning for Labour candidate Sam Terry in Ilford in 2019, Keir Starmer also posed with Abdul Shaheed Sheikh, who described himself as an Awami League PR worker. The same worker has now met with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. Awami League members have campaigned for Siddique on several occasions. Abdul Ahad Chowdhury, Shah Shamim Ahmed, who described himself as an office secretary, and general secretary Syed Sajidur Rahman Faruk are reported to have campaigned for the Hampstead and Kilburn MP in 2019.
While Awami League members have publicly expressed support for Tulip Siddique in recent years, it is unclear whether they have campaigned for him since. New questions have emerged about Labour’s relationship with the Awami League after Bangladesh investigators requested details of Siddique’s bank accounts. It is a move that could increase pressure on Tulip, the UK Treasury minister who has been embroiled in financial allegations.
Bangladesh’s anti-money laundering agency has asked the country’s major banks to provide information on his accounts and transactions. The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission has launched an investigation. It is investigating whether Siddique helped his family embezzle up to £3.9 billion from infrastructure projects. Tulip has denied all allegations.
He has also demanded a transparent investigation into Prime Minister Starmer’s policy advisers, following allegations that he used assets linked to his aunt’s supporters in London. Starmer is also facing scrutiny over his private meetings with Sheikh Hasina during a visit to Bangladesh. The seven-day trip to Dhaka and Sylhet in 2016, which cost £1,200, was organised by Labour Friends of Bangladesh, a group closely associated with Siddique.
According to photos in Bangladeshi media, Starmer was seen with Abul Hasan Mahmud Ali, who was Bangladesh’s foreign minister at the time. The British prime minister also met with Sheikh Hasina and three of her cabinet ministers in 2022. However, the Labor Party has not commented on this matter.