Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain suffered a new blow on Tuesday when his anticorruption minister, Tulip Siddiq, quit her post weeks after being named in an embezzlement investigation in Bangladesh.
Ms. Siddiq, 42, is the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, who resigned last year after 15 years in power and fled the country amid a broad student-led protest movement against her repressive rule.
A junior minister in Mr. Starmer’s government, Ms. Siddiq had previously referred herself to the prime minister’s ethics adviser for investigation. She has dismissed the allegations against her as politically motivated and has insisted that she did nothing wrong.
As economic secretary to the Treasury — a position she was given when the Labour Party came to power last July — Ms. Siddiq was responsible for tackling corruption in financial markets, including money laundering and illicit finance.
“I want to assure you that I acted and have continued to act with full transparency and on the advice of officials on these matters,” Ms. Siddiq wrote in an official letter of resignation to Mr. Starmer.
“However it is clear that my continuing in my role as economic secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of the government.”
This is a developing story.
