Tulip Siddiq

 ( Official Website ) 

In a 2006 by-election, Siddiq stood unsuccessfully for Camden Council. In the 2010 local government elections, she became the first female Bangladeshi councillor for Camden Council, where she was Cabinet Member for Culture and Communities until May 2014.

Circa 2009, she worked for the Bangladesh Awami League political party in the UK and EU lobbying unit and election strategy team, and appeared on BBC television as a spokesperson for the Awami League.

In July 2013, Siddiq was selected by local party members as the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency, despite a smear campaign. She later said that because of her Muslim surname, she was advised against standing in the constituency by senior party members, due to Hampstead's large Jewish population. During 2013 and 2014, she campaigned against the proposed high-speed railway expansion High Speed 2, and high payday lender charges on Kilburn High Road. She also campaigned in support of local services, such as to keep Belsize Fire Station open, to improve disabled access at West Hampstead tube station, and to save the Swiss Cottage post office.

In June 2015, Siddiq was appointed a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism. She is also a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee. In the same month, she was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election, although she later supported Andy Burnham.

In September 2015, Siddiq, along with Keir Starmer and Catherine West, wrote a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron seeking urgent action to address the refugee crisis due to the Syrian Civil War. In the same month, she was appointed Permanent Private Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Michael Dugher. In November 2015, she campaigned against changes to junior doctor contracts. In the same month, Siddiq's maiden speech in Parliament was judged one of the top seven from 2015's intake of MPs by the BBC. In October 2016, she was appointed as Shadow Education Minister in the Labour Party's frontbench in Parliament, taking on the childcare and early years education brief and working with Shadow Secretary of State for Education Angela Rayner.

In November 2016, Siddiq supported a motion in Parliament for the UK to withdraw support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In January 2017, she resigned from the Labour frontbench over Labour's three-line whip, to vote against triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. She stated that because around 75% of her Hampstead and Kilburn constituency had voted to remain in the European Union as one of the top 10 remain areas, she could not support Labour's position though with a "heavy heart". She won an endorsement from Camden for Europe, Open Britain and Best for Britain, due to her decision to vote against Article 50. In May 2017, ahead of the 2017 general election, Siddiq supported a group of Labour MPs who argued Labour should stand down in certain Green party target seats where they were more likely than Labour to defeat the Consevatives.

In August 2017, Siddiq called for businesses to "address imbalance" in the employment of people from ethnic minorities to improve the diversity of its workforce. In September 2017, she was appointed as Chair of the new Childcare and Early Education All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG). In the same month, she wrote to the Home Office to ask for children's passports to be amended to contain both their parents' names to avoid confusion at airports and borders. She had been stopped with her daughter at UK border control whilst returning from a family holiday until her husband joined them, because she did not have the same surname in her passport as her child.

In November 2017, whilst campaigning for the release of her constituent, the British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained in Iran, she was asked by Alex Thomson of Channel 4 News and ITN about using her family ties to the Bangladeshi government, led by her aunt, in order to liberate British Bangladeshi barrister Ahmad Bin Quasem, who is thought to have been abducted by state security forces in Bangladesh. The programme's editor, Ben de Pear, complained about Siddiq's "threatening behaviour" to a pregnant producer, while Siddiq complained to the police about her interlocutors. She later apologised in a statement to the producer, Daisy Ayliffe, for the offence caused.

In May 2018, Siddiq supported an equal pay campaign aimed at building pressure on employers. In the same month, she described the actions of the Israeli military during demonstrations on the Gaza border as "unjustified" and "inhumane". She said: "I condemn without reservation these violations of international law and human rights by Israel... The protest has been twofold – to highlight the shocking conditions which Palestinians are forced to live in and to demand their right to return to their homes..." In August 2018, she joined international calls for her aunt's government to release Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, who had been jailed after reporting about protests by schoolchildren over road safety problems, and had subsequently stated he was tortured.

In December 2024, Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) named Siddiq in an investigation into infrastructure projects, including a 2013 deal with Russia for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, in which it is claimed up to £3.9 billion was embezzled. Siddiq attended the nuclear deal's signing at the Kremlin alongside her aunt Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The investigation was started through a court application brought by a political opponent of Siddiq's aunt. Siddiq's current parliamentary brief includes regulating corruption in the financial sector. On 19 December, Siddiq had a meeting with the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team to discuss the allegations. Following the Financial Times reporting that a developer with links to the Awami League gave a flat bought in 2001 for £195,000 to Siddiq without charge in 2004, rather than being a gift from her parents as previously reported, Siddiq referred herself on 6 January 2025 to the prime minister's Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests to independently establish the facts. Siddiq continued to be subject to considerable media attention about her political future after the announcement.

The ACC later named Siddiq in another investigation into the alleged illegal allocation of of diplomatic zone land to Siddiq's mother and siblings. The affidavit filed by the ACC stated "it is known that Ms exerted pressure and influence ... for the allotment of plots in the same project in the names of her mother, Mrs Rehana Siddiq, her sister Ms Azmina Siddiq, and her brother Mr Radwan Mujib Siddiq." A spokesperson said that Siddiq rebutted the claim. In April 2025, a Bangladeshi judge issued an arrest warrant for Siddiq related to the land transfer.

On 14 January 2025, the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests report was published, in which he stated while he found no evidence of improprieties it was regrettable Siddiq "was not more alert to the potential reputational risks", but the shortcomings were not a breach of the Ministerial Code, though he advised the prime minister to "consider her ongoing responsibilities". Later that day Siddiq resigned from government, stating that although she had not breached the ministerial code, the ethics investigation was a distraction from the work of government.