Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned over alleged financial links to her aunt’s political connections in Bangladesh.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Labour MP said that while she had “not breached the ministerial code”, it is clear that continuing in her post would be “a distraction from the work of the government”.
The Hampstead and Highgate MP added: “I have therefore decided to resign from my ministerial position.”
Siddiq, who is also the City minister, had referred herself to the Prime Minister’s ethics watchdog last week.
Prime Minister Kier Starmer accepted Siddiq’s letter “with sadness”, adding that the ethics watchdog Sir Laurie Magnus “has assured me he found no breach of the Ministerial Code and no evidence of financial improprieties on your part”.
Siddiq had been under pressure over properties and business deals linked to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister who left office last August after two stints governing the country covering some 20 years.
Wycombe MP Emma Reynolds has been appointed as the new economic secretary to the Treasury, while new MP for Swansea West Torsten Bell will take up her previous role in the Department for Work and Pensions as parliamentary under-secretary.
Quilter head of retirement policy Jon Greer adds: “Torsten Bell’s appointment as a joint Parliamentary Secretary in HM Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions signals Labour’s intention to place pensions policy at the heart of its economic agenda.
“Bell’s background as an economist and his tenure as chief executive of the Resolution Foundation provides him with a solid background for the pensions brief and will enable him to grasp the complexities of a sector that is so critical to the financial well-being of millions.”