Staff Reporter:
The Labour Party in the UK has plunged into a fresh crisis after Bangladeshi daily Prothom Alo and British daily The Times collaborated on an investigation pertaining to the Bangladeshi nationality of Tulip Siddiq, niece of fascist Sheikh Hasina.
According to the documents, Tulip was issued a national identity card (NID) in 2011. The address given on her NID is Road No 5, Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka, which is her aunt Hasina’s house, Sudha Sadan.
She was allegedly illegally given land in Dhaka by Hasina too. The country’s anti-corruption commission said it was an “abuse of power”.
Entries in Bangladesh’s passport database appear to show Tulip applied to renew her passport in January 2011 at the Agargaon passport office in Dhaka, reports the Times. Entries into the Election Commission database also appear to confirm her national identity and passport numbers and show she has a voter registration number.
In both instances, her permanent address was listed as a house in Dhaka that belonged to her aunt. The newly revealed documents and database filings appear at odds with previous comments made by the Hampstead and Highgate MP, who last month denied claims made by prosecutors that she has been issued with a national identity card and passport.
A spokesman for Tulip’s lawyers, Stephenson Harwood, told the Financial Times on 12 August, “Tulip has never had a Bangladesh national identity card or voter ID and has not held a passport since she was a child.”
When presented with copies of the documents, a spokesman for Tulip claimed that they were “fabricated” and part of a “politically motivated smear campaign” by Bangladeshi authorities.
He added, “This is a deliberate and desperate attempt to undermine her credibility and reputation.”
A passport and national identity card are only issued to individuals who hold Bangladeshi citizenship, which is granted to all those who were born in the country as well as people who have a Bangladeshi parent, irrespective of where they were born.
Tulip, who was born in Britain to two Bangladeshi parents, is entitled to hold dual citizenship.
However, she previously sought to deny that she is Bangladeshi. In 2017, when asked whether she would intervene in the case of a British-trained barrister imprisoned in the country, she said, “Are you calling me Bangladeshi? Because I am British, be very careful what you’re saying because I’m a British MP. I am not Bangladeshi.”
