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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq apologises for ‘threatening remark’ to pregnant journalist

Labour MP Tulip Siddiq apologises for ‘threatening remark’ to pregnant journalist

Tulip Siddiq had been asked about the disappearance of a British-trained barrister in Bangladesh
Tulip Siddiq had been asked about the disappearance of a British-trained barrister in Bangladesh  YUI MOK/PA
The MP Tulip Siddiq has apologised for making “ill-judged” comments to a pregnant Channel 4 producer after she faced questions from the journalist.

The producer, Daisy Ayliffe, was asking Ms Siddiq about the case of Ahmad bin Quasem, a British-trained barrister who has disappeared in Bangladesh.

After the exchange Ms Siddiq, a member of the women and equalities committee, was caught on camera saying: “Thanks Daisy for coming. Hope you have a great birth because child labour is hard.”

The Channel 4 reporter Alex Thomson said the comment was “apparently threatening” while the programme’s editor, Ben de Pear, said he had made an official complaint to the Labour Party over Ms Siddiq’s conduct.

Ms Siddiq had then called the police, he said.

Today, Ms Siddiq released a statement apologising for her remarks.

She said: “I want to apologise unreservedly for my comments to Channel 4’s producer, which were an off-hand and ill-judged attempt to deal with what I felt was a hostile situation. I would never want to upset her and I hope she accepts my apology.”

Channel 4 has focused on Ms Siddiq during the case of Mr Bin Quasem due to her links with the Bangladeshi government, in which her aunt is prime minister. Human rights groups have said that the barrister was abducted by state security forces.

The MP defended her position, repeatedly asking Channel 4 whether Mr Bin Quasem was a resident of the UK or her constituency Hampstead, of which he is neither.

However, in 2015 she apparently told a Bangladeshi online newspaper that she believed that a politician could serve people from anywhere in the world. “You don’t have to be in Bangladesh or England,” she is reported to have said. “I try to help Bangladeshis in England in whatever way it is possible.”

She has been a prominent campaigner for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British mother who is imprisoned in Iran.

 

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