British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed lawmaker Emma Reynolds as Economic Secretary to the Treasury on Tuesday after Tulip Siddiq resigned the position.
Reynolds, 47, was elected to office at the 2024 national election, which saw the Labour Party regain power after 14 years in opposition.
She currently represents the Wycombe constituency in southern England and previously served as a lawmaker for a different seat in central England between 2010 and 2019.
Siddiq, the British minister responsible for financial services and fighting corruption, resigned after weeks of questions over her ties with her aunt Sheikh Hasina, ousted last year as prime minister of Bangladesh.
It is the second resignation of a senior woman from Starmer’s government over an ethics issue after Louise Haigh quit as transport secretary last year over a conviction for fraud. Haigh had wrongly reported a mobile phone as stolen to police before she was an MP.
Siddiq is also under investigation by authorities in Bangladesh over allegations of corruption linked to her aunt’s collapsed regime, which she “totally refutes”.
In her letter to Starmer, Siddiq said that she had been keen for the independent adviser to show she had not acted improperly. “However, it is clear that continuing in my role as economic secretary to the Treasury is likely to be a distraction from the work of the government,” she said.
“My loyalty is and always will be to this Labour government and the programme of national renewal and transformation it has embarked upon. I have therefore decided to resign from my ministerial position. I would like to thank you for the privilege of serving in your government, which I will continue to support in any way I can from the backbenches.”
Starmer said he accepted her resignation “with sadness” and hinted at a swift ministerial comeback, saying that the “door remains open for you going forward”.
He added that he was clear Magnus had found no breach of the code and no evidence of financial improprieties. “I appreciate that to end ongoing distraction from delivering our agenda to change Britain, you have made a difficult decision,” he said.
Source: U.S. News and World Report/The Guardian
BDST: 1257 HRS, JAN 15, 2025
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