Tulip holds Bangladeshi NID, passport, and TIN
Tulip Siddiq, a British Member of Parliament and former City Minister, has recently sparked debate over her citizenship status following the circulation of a viral video where she says, “I am not Bangladeshi, I am a British MP.”
The video, which resurfaced on social media platforms, shows Siddiq responding tersely when asked about the political situation in Bangladesh and her aunt, Sheikh Hasina. “Be careful. I don’t know anything about these things,” she says, visibly irritated. The video was captioned with accusations of disowning Bangladesh while allegedly benefiting from the country’s resources.
She is the granddaughter of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and niece of ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
However, a fact-check by the Rumour Scanner team revealed that the clip dates back to 2017, when Siddiq was questioned by a journalist from Channel 4 News about the disappearance of Barrister Ahmed Bin Quasem. The full report, titled “Tulip Siddiq: MP quizzed over abducted man in Bangladesh,” is still available on Channel 4’s official YouTube channel.
Despite Siddiq’s verbal denial of Bangladeshi identity in the clip, official records tell a different story.
According to government documents, Tulip Siddiq holds a valid Bangladeshi National Identity Card (NID) issued on January 3, 2011. The NID, under the name Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, lists her father as Dr. Shafiq Ahmed Siddiq and her mother as Rehana Siddiq. The address provided corresponds to House 54, Road 5, Dhanmondi, Dhaka – commonly known as Sudha Sadan, the family residence of Sheikh Hasina.
She is also registered as a Bangladeshi voter, with her latest voter information updated on December 19, 2024.
In addition to her NID, Tulip has held multiple Bangladeshi passports. Her first was issued in London on September 17, 2001, listing her profession as "student" and her place of birth as London, UK. It was renewed in 2011 in Dhaka, where her emergency contact was listed as Tariq Ahmed Siddique, former Defence Adviser to the Prime Minister.
Tulip Siddiq is also registered with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) as a taxpayer, holding a valid Tax Identification Number (TIN) since the 2007–08 fiscal year. According to senior NBR sources, she has filed income tax returns in Bangladesh.
On February 16, 2025, amid sweeping political changes in the country, the NID records of Siddiq, her aunt Sheikh Hasina, and ten other family members were locked by order of the Director General of the National Identity Registration Division.
Tulip’s name has also surfaced in corruption investigations launched after Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power in August 2024. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is probing allegations of embezzlement of Tk 80,000 crore linked to nine major infrastructure projects during Hasina’s rule.
On April 15, the ACC filed a case against Tulip Siddiq, accusing her of receiving a luxury flat in Dhaka’s Gulshan area from Eastern Housing Limited as a bribe in exchange for facilitating the illegal transfer of a government plot. The case, filed by ACC Assistant Director Monirul Islam, also names RAJUK officials Shah Md. Khasruzzaman and Sardar Mosharraf Hossain as co-accused.
