Yunus has refused to meet Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to discuss corruption allegations against her during his visit to London
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declined to meet Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus, after Awami League concerns over the reportedly scheduled meeting, a diplomat said on Thursday.
Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus is now in London on a bilateral official visit to the United Kingdom. The visit is taking place from June 10 to 13, 2025.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said that the Chief Adviser is likely to hold a bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the visit. “British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s meeting with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus is not taking place”, a Bangladeshi diplomat told ANI over the phone without elaborating.
The Bangladesh Awami League on Monday expressed deep concern over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reportedly scheduled meeting with Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, the party said in a statement.
“The Awami League has today expressed deep concern over UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s reportedly scheduled meeting with Muhammad Yunus, the self-declared Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, warning that any formal meeting lends legitimacy to an unelected and unconstitutional administration”, said the Awami League statement posted on its Facebook page.
A formal letter from the Awami League’s UK branch has been sent to Downing Street, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the King’s Foundation, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, urging British officials not to unwittingly launder Yunus’s administration, just as Bangladesh’s crisis deepens, it added.
Meanwhile, Yunus has refused to meet Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to discuss corruption allegations against her during his visit to London. Yunus said the allegations were a “court matter” and said he had confidence in Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which is investigating Siddiq.
The ACC has accused Siddiq of illegally receiving land from the regime of her aunt Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year. Siddiq, a former Treasury minister, has denied the allegations and accused the Bangladeshi authorities of a “politically motivated smear campaign”.
In a letter, Siddiq requested a meeting with Yunus, a Nobel-prize winning economist who has led an interim government in Bangladesh since a student-led protest movement toppled Hasina from power. Siddiq said a meeting “might also help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Dhaka”.
In an interview, Yunus was asked whether he would meet Siddiq during his four-day visit to the UK this week. “No I’m not because it’s a legal procedure,” Yunus said. “I don’t want to interrupt a legal procedure. Let the procedure continue.”
Siddiq has argued Bangladeshi authorities have not provided any evidence to back up their allegations and refuse to engage with her lawyers. Responding to those arguments, Yunus said: “It’s a court matter. A court will decide if enough materials are available to pursue the case or cancel it”.
When asked if prosecutors in Bangladesh needed to be more transparent and provide evidence of wrongdoing to Siddiq, Yunus said: “As chief adviser I have full confidence in our Anti-Corruption Commission and they are doing the right thing.”
On the question of whether he would seek Siddiq’s extradition if she was found guilty of any crimes in Bangladesh, Yunus said: “If it is part of the legal procedure, of course.”
In a statement, Siddiq said she was disappointed Yunus had refused to meet her. She said: “He’s been at the heart of a political vendetta based on fantasy accusations with no evidence relentlessly briefed to the media. If this was a serious legal process they would engage with my lawyers rather than sending bogus correspondence to an address in Dhaka where I have never lived. I hope he is now serious about ending the practice of smearing me in the press and allowing the courts to establish that their investigations have nothing to do with me – a British citizen and a proud member of the UK Parliament.”
Siddiq quit her ministerial post earlier this year, following an investigation into the allegations by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus. In his report, Sir Laurie said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties”. But he said it was “regrettable” that Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of her ties to her aunt, who is leader of Awami League party in Bangladesh. Bangladesh authorities estimate that about $234bn (£174bn) was siphoned off from Bangladesh through corrupt means while Hasina was in power. The Bangladeshi authorities allege that much of this money has been stashed or spent in the UK.
