Dhaka officials have uncovered documents showing ex-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has held a Bangladeshi passport and national identity card, contradicting earlier denials made by her lawyers. According to the Times, records show a passport was issued in London in September 2001, when Siddiq was 19, and a national identity card was in January 2011. She also applied to renew the passport in January 2011 at a passport office in Dhaka. Her permanent address was listed as a house in Dhaka owned by her aunt, Sheikh Hasina.
Her legal team insist the documents are “fabricated“:
“This is a deliberate and desperate attempt to undermine her credibility and reputation…”
Tulip herself also previously denied she was Bangladeshi in 2017, telling reporters:
“Are you calling me Bangladeshi? Because I am British, be very careful what you’re saying because I’m a British MP … I am not Bangladeshi.”
Siddiq is currently on trial in absentia in Bangladesh over accusations of influencing her aunty Hasina to secure plots of land for her family. She denies those claims too. And maintains she is “collateral damage” in a political dispute between Hasina and Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus…
The Free Speech Union has successfully forced Thames Valley Police to drop an investigation after they demanded that an American woman, Deborah Anderson, apologise for her social media posts. Officers turned up at her out house following a complaint in June. When Anderson, a Trump supporter, asked what her offending posts were, the police refused to tell her…
Free Speech Union founder Toby Young told Guido:
“I hope the fact that this happened to a US citizen means President Trump will raise Britain’s free speech problem with Sir Keir Starmer later today. The Prime Minister is in denial about it and it needs someone of Trump’s stature to shake him out of his complacency. We need a complete overhaul of our free speech laws if we’re to avoid becoming the North Korea of the North Sea.”
As day two of Trump’s state visit kicks off, this is an almighty bad look for Starmer. British police hassling a US citizen over “thought crimes” on social media is exactly the kind of story that goes down like a lead balloon in America. The perfect storm…
New figures quietly slipped out by the Treasury show that between April and June, senior officials racked up £59,226 on flights, hotels and other travel. While Reeves is staring down a £30 billion black hole as the OBR prepares to slash growth forecasts, her civil servants don’t seem too worried about tightening their belts….
Some of those trips weren’t exactly Ryanair economy: business class flights to Cape Town, Washington, Canada and Riyadh. For context, in the same period last year under the Tories, total expenses for senior officials were just £1,581. Cost-of-living, anyone?
Katie Lam joins Adam Cherry in the studio to discuss immigration, free speech, and grooming gangs. Plus what she thinks lies ahead for the Conservatives…
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Friends of the British Overseas Territories have arrived outside Windsor Castle to protest against Starmer’s surrender of the Chagos Islands. They’re hoping President Trump will have a quiet word with the King…
“The Chagos Islands do not belong to Mauritius. We urge Donald Trump to scrap the deal. Retain sovereignty, security and uphold the right to self‑determination.”
Braving the wind and rain for a good message…
Starmer and the Cabinet are now fawning over Trump as the state visit kicks off. It’s quite a spectacle given how they behaved in Trump’s first term. Guido is old enough to remember when several members of the current Cabinet signed an Early Day Motion trying to block Trump from setting foot in Parliament entirely in 2017. Including:
- Wes Streeting
- David Lammy
- Yvette Cooper
- Shabana Mahmood
- Jonathan Reynolds
- Peter Kyle
- Lisa Nandy
- Hilary Benn
- Jo Stevens
A few reminders of their past venom: Lammy called Trump a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” back in 2017. Cooper marched to “take a stand against Donald Trump” in 2018. Even Starmer tweeted: “Humanity and dignity. Two words not understood by President Trump.” Looks like it’s just Sadiq Khan carrying that torch now…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”
