Starmer May Swerve Meeting With Bangladesh Interim Leader as Tulip Siddiq Scandal Continues – Guido Fawkes

EXC: Starmer May Swerve Meeting With Bangladesh Interim Leader as Tulip Siddiq Scandal Continues

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Matters are coming to a head this week as Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus visits London to receive an award and – according to Bangladeshi officials – speak with Keir Starmer. The UK side has been strangely quiet about the upcoming meeting sought by Yunus, suggesting there is nervousness in Downing Street about what might be brought up…

Last week Yunus said he would raise Bangladesh’s efforts to recover funds allegedly embezzled by Awami League figures in Sheikh Hasina’s regime and stored in assets abroad. Former anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has also put herself on the agenda this weekend…

In a letter to Yunus which was briefed to The Guardian Siddiq requests a meeting with Bangladesh’s leader in order to “help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the anti-corruption committee in Dhaka that I have questions to answer in relation to my mother’s sister, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.” Siddiq promoted her enthusiasm to clear matters on an X post with the comments turned off…

Tulip and her lawyers have always denied all wrongdoing and she adds in the letter: “I have no property nor any business interests whatsoever in Bangladesh. The country is dear to my heart but it is not the country where I was born, live in or have built my career in.” Meanwhile over the weekend the Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangladesh said it had seized 87 pages of tax returns filed in the country by Siddiq which “cover the assessment years 2006–07 to 2018–19″…

The Awami League party of Tulip’s aunt Sheikh Hasina is protesting the visit, telling Downing Street “that any formal meeting lends legitimacy to an unelected and unconstitutional administration.” As revealed on these pixels Starmer has hobnobbed with senior Awami League staff – including Hasina – for years and was seen doing so as recently as December…

Yunus’ office for its part says it never received that letter from Tulip and therefore “we cannot comment on something we have not seen.” If Starmer actually meets with Yunus the pair has the opportunity to discuss the case in detail…