The purported sins of the aunt appear to have been laid upon the niece.

Deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s problems are getting compounded by the day, now singeing family members as far away as the UK.

Hasina’s niece, Tulip Siddiq, has been urged by The Times of London to stand down as a minister in Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

Dhaka’s anti-corruption commission has thrown a great deal of mud at Siddiq, probably as a way of getting at Sheikh Hasina. But in London, she is being attacked partly as a way of getting at Starmer, who is said to be a family friend.

The anti-corruption commission in Dhaka has not provided much by way of evidence against Siddiq. It has asked to see her bank accounts but this is probably a fishing exercise.

However, where Siddiq is in trouble is over her complicated property deals, living in or owning apartments either rented or gifted to her by Awami League businessmen who clearly wanted to be in Hasina’s good books.

There were further attacks on Siddiq on Thursday. The Mail racialised the controversy with senior commentator Stephen Glover declaring: “If she were white and a Tory the BBC would not be downplaying the growing scandal around Siddiq.”

And The Daily Telegraph attacked the Prime Minister: “Starmer campaigners were members of (the) Bangladeshi party led by Siddiq’s dictator aunt.”

Siddiq was once obviously proud her aunt was Prime Minister of Bangladesh; now she is distancing herself from her previous support for the Awami League, stressing she is a “British” politician.

The new generation of British journalists is generally not familiar with Bangladesh politics. They feel that if Siddiq has been accused of embezzling money when her aunt was in power, she should not be in charge of tackling corruption in the UK.
This is basically her ministerial responsibility.

When Starmer ousted Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister at the general election in July last year, he appointed Siddiq as economic secretary to the treasury and City minister. An ambitious woman, Siddiq, 42, must have thought this was the first step towards promotion to a job in the cabinet.

Dhaka’s anti-corruption commission claims Hasina and Siddiq embezzled funds when Bangladesh signed the £10-billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant deal with Vladimir Putin’s Russia in 2013 (and Putin is public enemy number one in Britain because of the Ukraine war). That was two years before Siddiq succeeded the double Oscar-winning actress, Glenda Jackson, as the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn (now Hampstead and Highgate).

In last year’s general election, when there was an anti-Tory swing across the country, Siddiq’s majority was a creditable 14,970. Hers is an elite constituency. Some 40 MPs once lived in and around “Hampstead Village”, which is still full of artists, actors, authors, pop stars and other celebrities.

The graveyard of Hampstead Parish Church resembles a who’s who, being the final resting place of painter John Constable, Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, and actor Rex Harrison’s first wife, Kay Kendall.

Next door is Sun House, the official residence of the deputy Indian high commissioner. And nearby is the residence where Amitabh Bachchan’s sister-in-law, Ramola Bachchan, held her lavish society parties when India’s globalisation got going. The guests included cricketer Imran Khan.

Salman Rushdie would put in appearances at the Hampstead branch of Waterstone. And, of course, there is Hampstead Heath, an idyllic place for a walk. It includes the Vale of Health where Tagore lived on trips to London.

Hampstead’s residents are often caricatured by the Right as “champagne socialists” — rich people who soothe their conscience by voting Labour.

That the area should now be represented by a Bangladeshi-origin MP shows just how much Britain has changed.

Tabloids such as the Daily Mail have been targeting Starmer through Tulip. One Mail story highlighted her living arrangements: “Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq apologises after breaking MP rules by failing to declare income from a London rental property for more than a year.”

She has taken a risk by referring herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, Laurie Magnus, protesting: “I am clear that I have done nothing wrong.”

She said much of the media reporting had been “inaccurate”.

Much more damaging are the negative articles in the Financial Times and The Sunday Times. They suggest that Tulip and her younger sister, Azmina, did nothing illegal but benefited through links with Bangladeshi businessmen. They were apparently gifted apartments or lived in them as lodgers.

The Sunday Times report said: “To date, Starmer has stood by Siddiq, who has insisted she is the victim of a smear attempt and said as much last month to the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team.”

It added: “Yet she has never provided a detailed account of how she and her family benefited financially from their ties to the Awami League.”

Against this background, the Times editorial on Wednesday suggested her position was becoming increasingly untenable. “She should stand aside while investigations take place,” it said.

The Times added: “Tulip Siddiq was not an obvious choice to be Labour’s City minister. The MP for Hampstead’s Highgate demonstrated little prior interest in the future of financial services in the UK, or how to ensure that the City of London remains an economic jewel.

“Scrutiny has focused on Ms Siddiq’s living arrangements and their links to Ms Hasina’s supporters. In August she was investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog over declarations about rental income of her flat. Ms Siddiq was cleared and apologised for an ‘administrative oversight’.

“It was then revealed that the minister was renting out her property after moving into a £2 million house owned by a political ally of Ms Hasina. It also transpired that Ms Siddiq had lived in two other properties gifted to her family, including a two-bedroom King’s Cross flat given to Ms Siddiq, without payment, by a property ­developer with political links to Ms Hasina.

“The minister has also lived in a Hampstead flat gifted to her sister by another ally of Ms Hasina’s regime. She denies any of her properties are linked to support for her aunt’s Awami League party.

“While all this controversy envelops Ms Siddiq, she is unable to fulfil her ministerial duties. It is a situation worthy of Yes Minister to have an anti-corruption minister accused of corruption. She has not recused herself from the economic crime brief. At a critical moment for the economy, with growth stalling, Ms Siddiq cannot do her job. She will not attend a forthcoming trade mission to China. She is also unable to appear in the media, as questions about her finances would dominate.

“The only sensible course is for Ms Siddiq to stand aside while the investigations proceed. If she is cleared, a path is paved for her to return to government. But if she remains in post, it will continue to be a needless distraction for Sir Keir. This vital portfolio cannot be left wanting any longer.”