The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said he would be happy to work again with Tulip Siddiq, who resigned as a minister yesterday, if the Prime Minister brought her back into Government.
Darren Jones also rejected the idea that Ms Siddiq’s appointment showed a lack of judgment from Sir Keir Starmer.
Sir Keir accepted Ms Siddiq’s resignation as a Treasury minister “with sadness” but said he wanted “to be clear that the door remains open for you going forward”.
Ms Siddiq quit after the ministerial standards watchdog said it was “regrettable” she was “not more alert” to the reputational risk caused by her links to her aunt’s political movement in Bangladesh.
Ms Siddiq’s aunt is the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled into exile after being deposed last year and is facing an investigation by an anti-corruption commission in Bangladesh, with the Labour MP reportedly named as part of the case.
Ms Siddiq – who as City minister had responsibility for tackling financial corruption – has also come under intense scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.
The Prime Minister’s ethics tsar, Sir Laurie Magnus, said he had not found any breach of the ministerial code but advised Sir Keir that he reconsider her responsibilities.
In her resignation letter, the Hampstead and Highgate MP, a parliamentary neighbour of the Prime Minister, told Sir Keir that although she had not breached the code, continuing in her role would be a “distraction”.
Mr Jones said the situation did not show a lack of judgment from the Prime Minister, but rather that the new ministerial standards watchdog process was working.
“I don’t think there’s a question about the Prime Minister’s judgment,” Mr Jones told Times Radio.
He said: “The independent process has been followed. It concluded, and Tulip took the decision to step down from Government.”
Mr Jones said he would be “very happy” to work with Ms Siddiq again in the future if the Prime Minister brought her back into Government.
“Tulip did a great job as City minister. She hasn’t broken any rules. The Prime Minister was clear in his letter to Tulip that he would like to see a circumstance in which she can come back into government in the future.”
“The Prime Minister appoints and sacks ministers. I’d be very happy to work with Tulip in the future if that opportunity came up,” he told Sky News.
Asked if there was any acceptance that the set of circumstances surrounding Ms Siddiq made it impossible for her to be a minister, he said that was a question for Sir Keir.
“He’s been very clear that, because there has been no question of improper behaviour on her part, there is no suggestion she’s broken any rules,” he said.
“That on that basis, as he said to Tulip in his letter to her, the door remains open in the future, but Tulip is right to have stood down because of the investigations taking place in another country in relation to her extended family,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Ms Siddiq had referred herself to Sir Laurie, who after a “fact-finding” exercise, told the Prime Minister she should have been more aware of the reputational risks relating to her family associations.
He said: “Given the nature of Ms Siddiq’s ministerial responsibilities, which include the promotion of the UK financial services sector and the inherent probity of its regulatory framework as a core component of the UK economy and its growth, it is regrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks – both to her and the Government – arising from her close family’s association with Bangladesh.
“I would not advise that this shortcoming should be taken as a breach of the Ministerial Code, but you will want to consider her ongoing responsibilities in the light of this.”
Sir Laurie said he accepted “at face value” that Ms Siddiq’s attendance at a Moscow signing ceremony for a nuclear power plant in 2013 had been to join family there and that she was not involved in any inter-governmental discussions between Russia and Bangladesh.
The minister was alleged to have been involved in brokering the deal in which large sums of cash are said to have been embezzled.
Sir Laurie said Ms Siddiq “inadvertently misled” the public about an apartment in King’s Cross she was given in 2004 by Abdul Motalif, an associate of members of the Awami League party in Bangladesh.
An independent review has confirmed that I have not breached the Ministerial Code and there is no evidence to suggest I have acted improperly.
Nonetheless, to avoid distraction for the Government, I have resigned as City Minister.
Here is my full letter to the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/kZeWZfEsei
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) January 14, 2025
She “remained under the impression that her parents had given the flat to her, having purchased it from the previous owner”, he said.
For a period up to 2018, she also lived in a flat in Hampstead, north London, which had been given to her sister in 2009 by lawyer Moin Ghani, who had represented the Hasina administration.
“Ms Siddiq has provided considerable background information to confirm that the tax treatment and funding arrangements were in order, but – in light of the age of the transactions – has not at this point been able to provide conclusive documentation to this effect,” Sir Laurie said.
“Given the intensity of the allegations concerning these transactions, it is regrettable (even if understandable in the context of their heritage) that this conclusive information is not available.”
