Who is City minister Tulip Siddiq?
Tulip Siddiq has served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate, having represented Hampstead and Kilburn before, since 2015.
After Labour took control in July, she was given the role of economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, overseeing the UK's financial services industry.
She is the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh who had served the longest in office and was recently removed from power during a pro-democracy movement earlier this year.
She is now involved in an inquiry regarding allegations that her family misappropriated almost £4 billion from national infrastructure initiatives.
A person familiar with the situation referred to these as "fabricated accusations."
Siddiq's dad worked as a university professor in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, while her mother received political asylum in the UK because she is Sheikh Hasina's younger sister.
They got together and tied the knot in London, and eventually relocated their family—Siddiq has an older brother and a younger sister—to Hampstead.
Siddiq, who was brought up in a Muslim household, shared that his family fully accepted the diverse culture of Britain while being deeply integrated within the local Jewish community.
During her childhood, she had the chance to meet notable figures like Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, and Mother Teresa. Her family also received an invitation to the White House.
Her maternal grandfather was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh. In 1975, during a military coup, soldiers attacked their home in Dhaka, resulting in the assassination of him and many members of his family.
Siddiq's mother and aunt were safe because they were out of the country.
Siddiq became a member of the Labour Party when he was just 16 years old. He later cited the NHS and the support provided for his disabled father as his primary motivations for joining.
She referred to Barbara Castle, a former cabinet minister, as her political inspiration and has praised her mother and aunt as "two incredibly strong feminists."
Before entering politics, she was employed by organizations such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, and the Greater London Authority, among others.
By 2010, she was involved in Ed Miliband's successful campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party and also served as a special advisor to Tessa Jowell, a former cabinet minister.
She was also chosen to serve on the Camden council in north London. Following the announcement that former Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson would be stepping down from her position as an MP, Siddiq was nominated as the Labour candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn parliamentary seat.
Siddiq was elected to Parliament during the 2015 general election and was among the 36 Labour MPs who endorsed Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the party. However, she chose to support Andy Burnham in that particular contest.
She would win re-election in 2017, 2019, and 2024 by significantly larger margins.
She was named shadow education minister in 2016 but stepped down from her official role just three months later to cast her vote against the initiation of Brexit.
Siddiq is likely most recognized for advocating for the freedom of her constituent, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian who was held in Iran for almost six years.
In 2017, during her efforts to secure Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's freedom, Siddiq was questioned in a Channel 4 News interview about why she hadn’t confronted her aunt, who faced allegations of heading a repressive regime in Bangladesh known for its human rights violations.
A dispute broke out, and the show's editor expressed that Siddiq's conduct towards a pregnant producer was "menacing," prompting Siddiq to apologize.
She got married in 2013. Just two days before welcoming her second child in 2019, she went to the Commons in a wheelchair for a crucial Brexit vote. Later that month, following a change in the rules, she became the first Member of Parliament to cast her vote by proxy.
