Keir Starmer declines to meet Yunus tracking down missing billions: Financial Times

The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has turned down a request to meet Bangladesh’s interim government chief adviser professor Muhammad Yunus, reports UK news outlet Financial Times.

The chief adviser is currently on a state visit to the UK with a view to raising support for efforts to recover billions of dollars siphoned off by the deposed regime of Sheikh Hasina.

Muhammad Yunus, however, said Starmer had not yet agreed to meet him, adding that he had “no doubt” Starmer would support Bangladesh’s efforts, the FT report added.

“This is stolen money,” he told the UK news media.

Financial Times report further said the UK government officials confirmed there was no plan for Starmer to meet Yunus at present, and declined to comment further.

Mentioning that the UK government was already providing assistance in finding the money, Muhammad Yunus said the UK should feel “legally and . . . morally” obliged to help Bangladesh recover the money.

The objective of the trip was to bring out “more enthusiastic support” from the UK, he stressed.

Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel-prize winning economist, is leading an interim government as a student-led protest movement ousted Sheikh Hasina on 5 August last year.

Bangladesh government’s recent investigations into the financial irregularities and corruptions of Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League “have at times threatened to reflect badly on Starmer’s UK Labour party”, the FT report mentioned.

In January this year, Tulip Siddiq, then anti-corruption minister and a close ally of Keir Starmer, was forced to resign as several corruption allegations were raised against her. Those allegations included her receiving material support, including property, from persons connected to the Awami League.

Tulip Siddiq, a niece of Sheikh Hasina, has denied any wrongdoing, but resigned her ministerial position.

Meanwhile, Tulip Siddiq, who remains an MP, asked to meet Muhammad Yunus in a letter sent this week. She said she wanted to clear up the “misunderstanding” being perpetuated by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission.

According to the FT report, Yunus said he would not meet Siddiq. “This is a legal issue . . . a legal process,” he said of the investigations into Siddiq’s affairs. “It’s not personal involving me.”