Tulip is still a voter in Bangladesh, has a passport and NID too

Tulip Rizwana Siddiq is an influential MP of the ruling Labour Party in the UK.  She has been claiming that she's solely a British citizen. However, Prothom Alo has documented evidence revealing that she holds a national identity card (NID) as a Bangladeshi citizen. She is a voter in Bangladesh. She had a Bangladeshi passport too.

Prothom Alo and the British daily, The Times, collaborated on the investigations pertaining to the Bangladeshi nationality of Tulip Siddiq, niece of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was ousted in a mass uprising last year. These documents have been verified by the concerned government offices in Bangladesh and have proven to be true.

According to the documents, Tulip was issued a national identity card (NID) in 2011. The address given on her NID is Road No. 5, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka, which is her aunt Sheikh Hasina’s house, Sudha Sadan.

In addition to the information printed on the NID, other details must be provided at the time of registration. These are stored in the Election Commission’s (EC) NID database. All information related to Tulip’s NID is also preserved in this database. Her NID lists her occupation as “private employment.” Her place of birth is recorded as Dhaka. Her voting constituency is Dhanmondi (road numbers 3–5). Her NID data carries the tag “migrated.” A passport number is also recorded on the NID server under the Election Commission.

On 5 August last year, the Sheikh Hasina government was toppled in a mass uprising. Later, in February this year, the EC “locked” the NIDs of 10 family members of Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana, This included the NID of Sheikh Rehana's daughter Tulip Siddiq.

Officials of the EC said that institutions contracted with the EC for NID services cannot access the information of locked NIDs. Various government and private institutions verify the authenticity of the NID for services such as banking, purchasing mobile SIM cards, and land registration. If the NID is “locked,” it becomes difficult to access these services.

On 12 August this year, a spokesperson for Tulip Siddiq’s UK legal advisory firm, Stephenson Harwood, told the British newspaper Financial Times that Tulip Siddiq has never had a Bangladesh national identity card or voter ID and has not held a passport since after she was a child.

Tulip has long been claiming that she is not a citizen of Bangladesh. In 2017 journalists in the UK asked her if she would intervene in a case of a British trained lawyer detained in Bangladesh. She reacted by saying, "Are you calling me a Bangladeshi? I am British. Be very careful of what you say! I am a British MP... I am not Bangladeshi."

However, according to the records of the Bangladesh passport office, a Tulip was issued a Bangladeshi passport in September 2011. She was 19 years old at the time. The passport has been issued by the Bangladesh High Commission in London.

When that passport expired, she applied in 2011 for a new passport at the Agargaon passport office in Dhaka. She was then issued a second passport.

According to the passport office, she indicated the application type as “new applicant.” Her name on the passport was recorded as  Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, her father’s name Dr. Shafiq Ahmed Siddiq and her mother’s name is Rehana Siddiq. Her permanent address was recoded as House No. 54, Road No. 5, Sudha Sadan, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka. Nationality – Bangladeshi. Place of birth – London.

As emergency contact in the passport form, Tulip listed the name of Major General (Retd.) Tarique Ahmed Siddiq. Tarique Siddiq is Tulip’s paternal uncle and was defence advisor to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
When Tulip's second passport was issued in 2011, her aunt Sheikh Hasina had been the prime minister of Bangladesh. This passport expired on 2 January 2016.

According to records of Bangladesh's Election Commission (EC) and passport documents, a National ID card and renewed or second Bangladeshi passport was issued for Tulip Siddiq in January 2011. On the same month Tulip took part in an official government event in Dhaka along with mother (Sheikh Rehana) and aunt (Sheikh Hasina).

According to The Times' investigations, reports published at the time show that on 18 January 2011, Tulip attended a symposium in Dhaka. Two days later, she was present with Sheikh Hasina at a meeting with the First Lady of Malaysia. Passport database records indicate that her passport was ready for collection on 17 January.

In September 2011, Tulip accompanied Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s official delegation to the 66th United Nations General Assembly. In 2013, she went to Moscow during her aunt’s state visit there, where she met Russian President Vladimir Putin and took photographs with him.

Earlier this year, it came to light that she had been staying in a house in London linked to Sheikh Hasina. She then herself reported the matter to the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests. Initially, she claimed that the flat in King’s Cross, London, worth £650,000, had been provided by her parents. However, it was later revealed that the flat had been financed by Abdul Motalif, a developer associated with the Awami League.

In an interview with The Guardian last month, Tulip Siddiq said she resigned in order to avoid creating confusion in government’s duties. She believes that she has now become “collateral damage" in the conflict between her aunt, Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh’s current interim government head, Muhammad Yunus.

Those with a Bangladesh passport and NID in Bangladesh are considered to be Bangladeshi citizens. Though she was born in the United Kingdom, both of Tulip's parents were born in Bangladesh. Thus she can possess both British and Bangladeshi nationality, since both countries permit dual nationality. To become a citizen of some countries, including the United States, one must renounce their original citizenship before taking the oath. However, to become a citizen of the United Kingdom, taking oath is not mandatory and there is no need to renounce citizenship of one's country.

According to Bangladesh law, a person retains their Bangladeshi citizenship until they formally renounce their allegiance to Bangladesh. If someone wishes to relinquish their Bangladeshi citizenship, they can do so by submitting an application to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Prothom Alo inquired at the Ministry of Home Affairs to find out whether

Tulip Siddiq has renounced her Bangladeshi citizenship. Officials at the ministry said that to date, Tulip Rizwana Siddiq has not submitted any application to renounce her Bangladeshi citizenship.

Supreme Court lawyer Shahdin Malik told Prothom Alo that according to an agreement between the UK and Bangladesh, any person can be a citizen of both countries. There are no legal restrictions in this regard. However, Tulip is not admitting this, indicating that she has resorted to falsehood.

Tulip is still a voter in Bangladesh. On 31 August this year, Prothom Alo sent an email to Tulip's legal representative in the UK, the law firm Stephenson Harwood, seeking a statement from Tulip Siddiq regarding her NID, passport, and Bangladeshi citizenship. This was followed up with two more letters asking for a response in this regard. There has been no reply to date.

However, a spokesperson of Tulip Siddiq spoke to the British newspaper The Times on her behalf. It was said that for nearly a year, the Bangladeshi authorities have been running politically motivated smears against Tulip, even though they have not been able to present any credible evidence.  

Tulip’s spokesperson further said that the Bangladeshi authorities were now circulating forged documents to give a semblance of legitimacy to the so-called judicial process. Tulip Siddiq has never held a Bangladeshi national ID or voter ID, and she has not possessed a passport since childhood. This is a deliberate attempt to undermine her credibility and reputation. It was added that Sir Laurie Magnus CBE, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Ministers’ Interests has already announced, after a detailed investigation, that Tulip Siddiq committed no wrongdoing.

On Tulip’s NID, her place of birth is listed as Dhaka, while on her passport it is recorded as London. Aside from this, the rest of her personal information is the same. However, the place of birth on her NID is incorrect. When asked about this, sources connected to the NID system said that officials are not in a position to verify or question the information on the NID of someone as influential as the prime minister’s niece.

Moreover, in Bangladesh, mistakes in NIDs regarding one’s name, parents’ names, date of birth, and place of birth are quite common. Numerous applications for correcting such errors are still pending.

Most recently, in a letter issued on 9 September by the National Identity registration wing of the Election Commission Secretariat, it was stated that under the NID correction crash program, 907,662 NID correction applications were processed in the first six months of this year. During the same period, 984,356 applications for NID correction were received.
Tulip has also provided different addresses in different places. Two addresses in Dhanmondi are listed on her passport and NID. In her income tax returns, in addition to the Bangabandhu house in Dhanmondi, she also listed her father Shafiq Siddiq’s house on Road 4 in Gulshan.

After the current interim government came to power, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) began investigating irregularities involving Sheikh Hasina and her relatives. Meanwhile, Tulip has been made a defendant in four cases. ACC Director General (Prevention) Akhter Hossain told Prothom Alo that these cases were filed based on specific evidence. Summons have been issued to her at the addresses listed on her Bangladeshi passport, NID, and voter list. The evidence collected against her will be presented in court to substantiate the cases.

Observers say the issue is one of ethics. Saima Wazed is the daughter of Bangladesh’s then-Prime Minister, and her nomination as Bangladesh’s candidate for the position of Regional Director of the WHO Southeast Asia office was controversial. On 11 July, WHO placed Saima Wazed on leave. Following her case, Tulip Siddiq’s dual citizenship has now come to the fore.

After the student–people’s uprising in Bangladesh on 5 August last year, which led to the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, allegations of irregularities began to surface against Tulip in both London and Bangladesh. Facing various corruption allegations and criticism, she resigned from her position as the UK’s City Minister on 14 January.
In the ACC cases, Bangladeshi courts have already issued an arrest warrant against her and initiated judicial proceedings. Tulip has claimed that these cases in Bangladesh are a politically motivated smear campaign against her. (The Guardian, 14 April 2025)

When asked about this, ACC’s public prosecutor Khan Md. Moinul Hasan (Lipon) told Prothom Alo that no smear campaign is being conducted against Tulip. Legal action is being taken against her based on specific evidence.

While proof of her citizenship is available in Bangladesh’s government records, Tulip continues to claim that she is solely British. As a result, the mystery surrounding Tulip Siddiq’s dual citizenship has evoked curiosity and interest both in Bangladesh and in the political circles of the United Kingdom.