Keir Starmer’s leadership has been plagued by questionable decisions, but none so glaringly indefensible as his appointment of Tulip Siddiq as the UK’s anti-corruption minister—a role she held until her resignation in January 2025, only to be followed by a shocking arrest warrant issued by Bangladeshi authorities on April 14, 2025. The warrant, linked to allegations of corruption involving her aunt, the deposed Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, exposes not just Siddiq’s unsuitability for the role but Starmer’s staggering lack of judgement. At a time when the Labour Party promised to restore trust in politics, this appointment has done the opposite, revealing Starmer’s administration as either woefully naive or dangerously complicit in its own ethical blind spots.
The Arrest Warrant: A Predictable Scandal
On April 14, 2025, Bangladeshi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Highgate, as part of a broader probe by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into the regime of Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August 2024. The allegations are serious: Siddiq is accused of illegally receiving land in Dhaka, tied to claims that Hasina and her family embezzled up to £3.9 billion from infrastructure spending. Court documents also allege that Siddiq helped broker a 2013 deal with Russia that inflated the cost of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, further enriching her family’s political dynasty.
Siddiq has denied the charges, calling them a “politically motivated smear campaign” and insisting she has never owned land in Bangladesh. Her lawyers argue that the ACC has provided no evidence, and Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM’s ethics adviser, previously cleared her of impropriety in January 2025, though he noted her failure to recognise the “potential reputational risks” of her ties to Hasina. But the issuance of an arrest warrant—whether politically motivated or not—casts a long shadow over Siddiq’s credibility, especially in a role meant to champion integrity and combat corruption.
Starmer’s Appointment: A Catastrophic Error in Judgement
Starmer appointed Siddiq as economic secretary to the Treasury with a specific brief to tackle corruption in the City of London—a role dubbed the “anti-corruption minister” by the press—shortly after Labour’s 2024 election victory. The decision was baffling even then, given Siddiq’s well-documented ties to Bangladesh’s political elite. As the niece of Sheikh Hasina, a leader whose 15-year tenure was marked by increasing authoritarianism and corruption allegations, Siddiq was always a walking conflict of interest. A 2015 photograph of her standing alongside Hasina and Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, during the signing of a billion-dollar nuclear power deal, had already raised red flags within Labour when she was a candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn. Yet Starmer, who campaigned on a platform of “cleaning up politics,” ignored these warning signs.
The arrest warrant has now turned what was already a questionable appointment into a full-blown scandal. How could Starmer, a former Director of Public Prosecutions who prides himself on his legal acumen, fail to see the reputational disaster waiting to happen? Labour insiders have admitted it was an “own goal,” with one MP quoted in The Guardian asking, “Who on earth thought it was a good idea drawing attention to all that by giving her that job?”. The answer, apparently, is Starmer himself—or at least his chief of staff, Sue Gray, who was tasked with vetting prospective ministers for precisely these kinds of risks.
A Betrayal of Labour’s Promises
Starmer’s 2024 election campaign was built on a pledge to restore trust in British politics after years of Tory scandals, from Partygate to PPE fraud. In a January 2024 speech, he vowed a “total crackdown on cronyism,” promising “no more VIP fast lanes, no more kickbacks for colleagues, no more revolving doors between government and the companies they regulate”. Appointing Siddiq as anti-corruption minister directly undermines that promise. Her familial ties to a regime accused of embezzling billions, combined with the 2013 nuclear deal allegations, make her the antithesis of the clean, transparent governance Starmer claimed to champion.
Worse, Starmer’s response to the unfolding scandal has been tepid at best. When Siddiq resigned in January 2025, following initial reports of the ACC investigation, Starmer left the door open for her return, writing in his resignation letter that “the door remains open” for her to rejoin the government. Even after the arrest warrant, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister refused to comment on the case, citing a policy of not addressing individual matters. This reluctance to take a firm stand smacks of political cowardice, further eroding public confidence in Labour’s commitment to ethical governance.
The Wider Pattern: Starmer’s Ethical Blind Spots
Siddiq’s appointment isn’t an isolated lapse—it’s part of a broader pattern of ethical missteps under Starmer’s leadership. In September 2024, Starmer and senior ministers, including Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves, faced criticism for accepting gifts from Labour donors, including £5,000 worth of clothes for Starmer’s wife from Lord Alli. Starmer himself has received £107,145 in gifts and hospitality since 2019, more than two-and-a-half times any other MP, according to Sky News. When challenged, Starmer and his team brushed off the criticism rather than tightening the rules, a move that Martin Kettle in The Guardian called a “blind spot on standards”.
This pattern of complacency extended to Siddiq. Labour circled the wagons around her when questions about her property arrangements first arose in 2022, and Starmer’s team failed to conduct proper due diligence before her appointment. The result is a government that appears tone-deaf to the public’s demand for integrity, especially at a time when households are grappling with inflation (currently at 2.8%, projected to hit 3.7% by Q3 2025), rising taxes, and global trade tensions like the U.S.’s 245% tariffs on Chinese imports.
The Fallout: A Damaged Premiership
The arrest warrant has amplified calls for accountability. A Conservative Party spokesman demanded that Siddiq “immediately stand down as Labour MP,” arguing that it’s “shocking that Keir Starmer believes ‘the door remains open’ for Ms. Siddiq returning to a government position”. While the Conservatives’ outrage may be opportunistic—given their own history of ethical scandals—it’s hard to disagree with the sentiment. Siddiq’s continued presence in Parliament, let alone the possibility of her return to government, is a slap in the face to voters who expected better from Labour.
Starmer’s handling of the affair has also drawn scrutiny to his successor choice, Emma Reynolds, who replaced Siddiq as City minister. Reynolds, a former lobbyist, has faced questions about her own conflicts of interest, having previously lobbied against restrictions on Chinese businesses. This only deepens the perception that Starmer’s government is more comfortable with cronyism than combating it.
What Starmer Should Have Done—and Must Do Now
Starmer’s first mistake was appointing Siddiq in the first place. Given her ties to Hasina, a basic vetting process should have flagged her as a liability for any role involving anti-corruption. Sue Gray, tasked with preparing Labour for government, failed spectacularly in this regard. Starmer’s second mistake was his reluctance to act decisively when the allegations surfaced. Rather than allowing Siddiq to refer herself to the ethics adviser—a move insiders say she was “leaned on” to do—Starmer should have demanded her resignation immediately.
Now, with the arrest warrant in play, Starmer must take unequivocal action:
- Demand Siddiq’s Resignation as MP: If Siddiq won’t step down voluntarily, Starmer should expel her from the Labour Party. Her continued presence undermines Labour’s credibility on anti-corruption.
- Overhaul Vetting Processes: Starmer must ensure that future appointments are rigorously vetted for conflicts of interest, with no exceptions for personal allies or party loyalists.
- Lead by Example: Starmer should address his own ethical lapses, such as the acceptance of donor gifts, by implementing stricter rules for himself and his ministers, as he promised in 2024.
- Apologise to the Public: A public apology for the Siddiq appointment, coupled with a clear plan to restore trust, could help mitigate the damage—though it may be too late to fully repair Starmer’s reputation.
Conclusion: A Leadership in Crisis
Keir Starmer’s appointment of Tulip Siddiq as anti-corruption minister was a catastrophic error, one that has been brutally exposed by the arrest warrant issued against her on April 14, 2025. Far from cleaning up politics, Starmer has presided over a scandal that reeks of the very cronyism and ethical lapses he vowed to eradicate. His failure to vet Siddiq properly, his reluctance to act decisively, and his broader pattern of ethical blind spots have left his premiership on shaky ground, just months into his tenure.
The British public deserves better. They voted for a government that would restore trust in politics, not one that would appoint a minister with ties to a corrupt regime—and then dither as her arrest warrant made headlines. Starmer must act swiftly to salvage his credibility, but the damage may already be done. If this is the “change” Labour promised, it’s no wonder voters are losing faith faster than Starmer can say “anti-corruption.”
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