Why did Keir Starmer handle the Tulip Siddiq furore so badly?

When the anti-corruption minister is accused of corruption by a foreign government and has no prospect of being able to shut the story down any time soon, it is perfectly obvious that her position is untenable. Yet Keir Starmer allowed the furore over Tulip Siddiq to run for several weeks before the obvious resolution – that she must step down from her ministerial role – was implemented. 

Siddiq was named as a suspect in a corruption investigation by Bangladesh back on 19 December. Since then the controversy over the Hampstead and Highgate MP, who stands accused of benefiting from widespread financial plunder in Bangladesh allegedly carried out by her aunt Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League political party, has rarely been out of the headlines. Siddiq denies the claims.

The report into the affair by Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM’s ethics adviser, was a masterpiece in achieving a desired outcome – Siddiq’s departure from the government – without explicitly knocking further lumps out of her reputation.