Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister, is facing mounting pressure to sack Labour Minister Tulip Siddique, the niece of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after Bangladesh's interim government leader Muhammad Yunus condemned the use of properties gifted to Tulip Siddique and her family in London by allies of the former government.

Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury, has a role in tackling corruption in the financial markets of the United Kingdom. Yunus narrated the Sunday Times that he wanted the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the properties, insisting that the assets bought by Hasina’s Awami League allies should be returned to Bangladesh. “That is the aim of the interim government. How can they be brought back,” Yunus said to the newspaper.

Siddiq, 42 referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards had revealed to the media that the Awami League had gifted some properties in London in which she is living. “I have done nothing wrong,” she stated in a letter to the authorities.

On Sunday, the Opposition leader Kim Badenoch called on Prime Minister Starmer to sack Siddiq. "He has appointed his personal friend as anti-corruption minister, and he is accused of corruption," Badenoch said. Last week, Starmer said that he had faith in Siddique.

Yunus expressed it must be an "irony" that Siddique had been accused of corruption. "He becomes an anti-corruption minister and defends himself (over the property issue)," he told the newspaper.

The Sunday Times uncovered that in 2005, an offshore company associated with two Bangladeshi people in business gave a Hampstead flat to Moin Ghani, a barrister who served Hasina's government. Ghani gave it as a gift to Siddiq's sister Azmina in 2009, and Siddiq lived there.

Siddiq also has a flat in King's Cross, which was gifted to her in 2004 by Abdul Motalif, who has Awami League links. She leases this out and continues to reside in a property worth £2.1 million (Rs 22 crore) rented from Abdul Karim Nazim, an executive member of the UK Awami League. After Siddiq arrived at his new home, Hasina's government accorded her VIP status.

Siddiq's mother, Rehana, lived in a £1.4 million (Rs 15 crore) London home which belonged to the family of Salman F Rahman, a highly wealthy Bangladeshi businessman who became a minister in Hasina's government.

Yunus also highlighted a report that claimed the elite was taking billions of pounds out of Bangladesh each year. "They pointed out how money is taken, but it isn't stealing; when you steal, you conceal it. "It is indeed a robbery," Yunus told the newspaper. When asked if it applied to these properties, Yunus replied, "Absolutely, it's about plain robbery."

According to Mahfuz Alam, a student activist in Dhaka, gifting property to people of the Hasina family abroad was "a coordinated process conducted for 15 years". "They were plundering and assisting people who vouched for her (Hasina) and her politics," Alam informed the audience.