WHERE DO HER LOYALTIES REALLY LIE?
LAST year, Labour MP Tulip Siddiq was rebuked by deputy speaker Eleanor Laing for playing the ‘pregnancy card’ after leaving a debate to take a comfort break. She was seven months pregnant at the time.
Laing, a Tory MP, was apparently infuriated that Siddiq had failed to remain in the chamber for the required period after she’d spoken, and told her: ‘You’re bringing down the whole of womankind.’
Harsh as it seemed at the time, that same charge could surely be levelled again – and with greater cause – following Siddiq’s ‘threatening’ comments to the pregnant Channel 4 reporter Daisy Ayliffe.
Yes, Siddiq, 35, has apologised ‘unreservedly’ for her ‘ offhand and ill- judged’ response, but the incident is a telling indication of a troubling question mark over the MP’s allegiances.
Channel 4 had attempted to question Siddiq, who has been campaigning on behalf of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – jailed in Iran – about why she’s ignored calls to take up the case of Ahmad bin Quasem, 33, a Bangladeshi British-trained barrister. Since July 2016 the father has been detained illegally without charge, according to his supporters, by the Bangladeshi authorities after being abducted by security forces from his home in Dhaka.
He had been representing his father, Mir Quasem Ali, a prominent leader of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, who was later executed. Like Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Mr bin Quasem is in poor health.
Despite pleas from his supporters, Siddiq has always insisted the matter was nothing to do with her as Mr bin Quasem is not a constituent – which isn’t really the issue. She also denied taking any interest in Bangladeshi politics – which was. Because if anyone is well placed to intervene in this case, it is the MP for Hampstead and Kilburn.
On the day Siddiq made her maiden speech in the Commons in 2015, watching from the public gallery was a woman few would recognise, but who is ranked by Forbes as the 30th most powerful woman in the world. Sheikh Hasina Wazed is the divisive and hard line prime minister of Bangladesh who has been accused of human rights abuses. She is also Siddiq’s aunt.
By her own admission Siddiq has learnt ‘everything I know about politics from my aunt’, who is now in her a third term.
Their closeness has already caused problems after a photo was published of a beaming Siddiq alongside her aunt and Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Moscow in 2013.
PRIOR to the 2015 election, the Tories accused Siddiq of trying to ‘hide’ her links to the Kremlin from voters. She denied any such link, explaining: ‘I don’t get to see [my aunt] much and she suggested me and my sister come to Russia when she was there. We were separate from the official delegation and were invited to a family event. I didn’t know Putin was going to be there, but he asked for a picture. It was two seconds.’ Siddiq’s claim to have no interest in Bangladeshi affairs is further undermined by the interest shown in her by Bangladeshi journalists, who monitor her every move. And prior to her election she described herself as a ‘spokesperson for the Awami League’ – her aunt’s political party.
The truth is Siddiq’s family is Bangladeshi political aristocracy. Her grandfather, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was founding father of the nation and its first president.
While no one can fault her efforts to free Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, one has to ask why, given her impeccable Bangladeshi connections, Siddiq won’t make representations on Mr bin Quasem’s behalf too.
A cynic might suggest the latter case is of less interest because it is lower profile and of less use politically, although she insists her focus is on delivering for the residents of Hampstead and Kilburn and that she has no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh.
During the 2017 campaign, a Labour leaflet bearing the name of Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, urging people to vote for Siddiq was distributed in West Hampstead. Even hardened Labour supporters recoiled at the idea of exploiting voter sympathy in this way. And when the Ham & High, her local newspaper, failed to mention her in an article about ZaghariRatcliffe, she complained to the editor.
In 2015, Siddiq told Bangladeshi publication BDNews24 that politicians should help people from anywhere in the world. ‘You don’t have to be in Bangladesh or England. I try to help Bangladeshis in England in whatever way it is possible.’ Right now, Ahmad bin Quasem would welcome some of that help.