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Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain suffered a new blow on Tuesday when his anticorruption minister, Tulip Siddiq, quit her post weeks after being named in an embezzlement investigation in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
Ms. Siddiq, 42, is the niece of Sheikh Hasina<\/a>, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, who resigned last year after 15 years in power and fled the country<\/a> amid a broad student-led protest movement against her repressive rule.<\/p>\n A junior minister in Mr. Starmer\u2019s government, Ms. Siddiq had previously referred herself to the prime minister\u2019s ethics adviser for investigation. She has dismissed the allegations against her as politically motivated and has insisted that she did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n As economic secretary to the Treasury \u2014 a position she was given when the Labour Party came to power last July \u2014 Ms. Siddiq was responsible for tackling corruption in financial markets, including money laundering and illicit finance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI want to assure you that I acted and have continued to act with full transparency and on the advice of officials on these matters,\u201d Ms. Siddiq wrote in an official letter of resignation to Mr. Starmer.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever it is clear that my continuing in my role as economic secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n This is a developing story.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n