Now free flat given to Tulip Siddiq’s younger sister found in London

Another flat that was given to the family of the UK’s ruling Labour Party minister Tulip Siddiq, 42, has been found in London, UK-based daily The Sunday Times reported on Saturday.

Tulip Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury, is responsible for tackling financial crime and corruption. She is a daughter of Sheikh Rehana, who is sister of Sheikh Hasina, the authoritarian former prime minister of Bangladesh.

The Times report states, “The Treasury minister responsible for tackling financial crime and corruption lived in a property given to her family by an ally of her aunt’s deposed regime in Bangladesh. Tulip Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury, used a flat on Finchley Road in Hampstead, north London, after it was given to her for free by her teenage sister, Azmina.”

Bangladeshi lawyer Moin Ghani, who has represented Hasina’s government and has been pictured with former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, handed the property to Azmina in 2009. UK Land Registry documents state that the transfer was “not for money or anything that has a monetary value”. Azmina was 18 at the time and about to begin her studies at Oxford, according to the Times report.

Tulip Siddiq, 42, is among several family members said to have benefited from the Sheikh Hasina regime, although she denies wrongdoing. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that she retains his confidence.

The Times said, “It is unclear exactly when Tulip Siddiq moved in to the flat, but, upon her appointment in December 2012 as a director of the Working Men’s College education institute, she listed the property as her address on Companies House. She did the same on becoming a trustee of the Camden Arts Centre charity in January 2014 and the Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust, another non-profit, in March 2014. Her husband, Christian Percy, listed it as his address as late as May 2016, by which time Siddiq was serving as Labour MP for Hampstead & Kilburn.”

Azmina, whose career has included roles at Tony Blair’s Institute for Global Change and, more recently, at a children’s charity, sold the residence for £650,000 in 2021.

By then, Moin Ghani, the prior owner, had spent years advising Bangladesh in international disputes. When Hasina’s government nominated him in 2021 for a role on a World Bank panel, he declared: “It was an honour for me to receive a personal note of congratulations and thanks from the honourable prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.”

Tulip Siddiq declined to comment on the record. A source close to her said she had lived at her sister’s property for a period, adding that this was normal for many families.