Tulip Siddiq has spoken on camera for the first time since a Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for the MP. She says she is facing a “trial by media.”
“No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me the entire time, they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities – they never responded. I’m sure you’d understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign with any context or any comments, it’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign trying to harass me. There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong.”
Asked at today’s Lobby briefing to journalists Starmer’s spokesman said the “government doesn’t comment on individual legal cases” and said that in any case it doesn’t “get into extradition issues at all.” Previously the line was that No 10 “wouldn’t get into hypotheticals.” Not hypothetical any more…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”