INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The British minister responsible for financial services and fighting corruption resigned on Tuesday after weeks of questions over her
financial ties to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, ousted last year as prime minister of Bangladesh.Tulip Siddiq, 42, had repeatedly denied any
wrongdoing and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week he had full confidence in her.The resignation of a second government minister in
two months is a blow to Starmer, whose approval ratings have plunged since his Labour Party won a general election in July.Siddiq was handed
the portfolio for financial services policy after the election, a role that included responsibility for measures against money-laundering.In
suspicion of corruption and money laundering
involved in siphoning off funds from Bangladeshi infrastructure projects.The anti-corruption commission alleged financial irregularities
worth billions of dollars in the awarding of a $12.65 billion nuclear power contract, saying Hasina and Siddiq may have benefited.After
facing further scrutiny over the use of properties in Britain linked to Hasina and her supporters, Siddiq referred herself to the
of British transport minister Louise Haigh late last year
Haigh acknowledged a minor criminal offence before she entered government, relating to a mobile phone that she had wrongly reported
stolen.Source: Reuters--Agencies
