UK city minister Tulip Siddiq was given a central London location by a party linked to the recently ousted Bangladeshi government.
Siddiqeconomic secretary at the Treasury, was given a two-bedroom flat near King's Cross in 2004 without making a payment, according to previously undisclosed Registry files.
The files show that the donor was Abdul Motalif, a developer and friend of people connected to Siddiq's aunt, former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is the leader of the Awami League party.
The King's Cross property, which Siddiq still owns, was bought in January 2001 for £195,000, the files show. A flat next door to the building was sold in August for £650,000.
“Any suggestion that Tulip Siddiq's ownership of this property, or any other property is linked to the support of the Awami League, would be wrong,” the minister said.
Motalif confirmed to the Financial Times by phone that he had bought the King's Cross property but declined to say what he had done with it.
“Following the financial support that Tulip's parents gave to someone they know during a difficult time in his life, he then transferred the place he had to the owner of Tulip as an act of gratitude for his parents' support,” said a person familiar with the matter. .
The details of the gift raise new questions about Siddiq's ability to distance himself from corruption charges, given that he was called in the investigation last month by the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Bangladesh investigation came after a political rival of Sheikh Hasina accused her family, including Siddiq, of being behind a Russian-backed nuclear power project, claims they deny.
Members of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League were also accused conversion fee from Bangladesh's banking system to buy properties in UK, US, United Arab Emirates and Singapore. They have denied the allegations.
Siddiq held a briefing on the British government's responsibility for anti-money laundering and crackdown on illegal currency.
Electoral roll data shows Siddiq lived in a flat in King's Cross in the early 2000s and his siblings lived in the area for several years afterwards. Siddiq declared rental income from two flats in his MP's declaration of financial interests.
Motalif, now 70, lives in south-east London. Companies House filings show him listed as the owner of a now-defunct small property services company.
The electoral roll data shows that he endorsed Moin Ghani, a lawyer who represented the Awami League-led government and has photographed and Sheikh Hasina, to stay in the King's Cross flat before giving it to Siddiq. Ghani did not respond to the request to breathe.
The data also shows that Motalif shared a residential address in south-east London with Mojibul Islam, the son of an Awami League MP, between 2014 and 2024.
Motalif and Islam both confirmed they were registered at an address in south-east London.
According to Land Registry files, the gift of the King's Cross property was made before Siddiq became an MP, meaning he was not required to disclose it.
The documents show that, in 2018, Siddiq increased the lease of the King's Cross property by £90,000. She has bought a flat jointly with her husband for £865,000 in her London borough of Hampstead and Highgate.
The Land Registry documents show that there is currently no mortgage on any of the flats.
A person familiar with the matter said that five years after Siddiq bought the flat in her neighborhood with her husband, she “paid off the balance of the loan using only the couple's money”.
Siddiq was fined by the parliamentary standards commissioner last year after failing to declare rental income from a county flat.
Before becoming an MP in 2015, Siddiq worked for a number of charities and as a consultant to Philip Gould Associates, a peer-to-peer firm and consultancy.
Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh's interim government, which took power in August described the Awami League as “fascism”. Opposition parties and human rights groups accuse him of rigging elections, committing extrajudicial killings and seizing government facilities.
Sheikh Hasina last month denied ordering security forces to use lethal force against protesters and said the allegations against her were “false”.
Downing Street said last month that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “trusts” Siddiq, adding that he “refuses to engage in fabricated allegations” about the Russian-backed nuclear power plant.
UK government officials say they have not seen evidence of Siddiq's wrongdoing.
Siddiq has been a member of the Labor Party since he was 16 years old. blog post that has been deleted.
The UK partners of the Awami League have campaigned alongside Siddiq in several British general elections, including last year's vote that brought Labor to power, according to people familiar with the matter.
“If it wasn't for your help. I would not be able to stand here as a British MP,” Siddiq told a crowd of Awami League supporters in 2015, shortly after becoming an MP, at an event held in London to honor Sheikh Hasina.
From 2022, Siddiq has rented a £2.1mn London home owned by Abdul Karim, a leading member of the UK wing of the Awami League. He moved to the property outside his county after it was purchased in July 2022, according to the filings.
A friend of Siddiq said he was paying “market rates” and that the relationship between him and Karim had been duly disclosed to parliamentary authorities.