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Chris Philp has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being "more interested in his cronies" than making appointments with integrity. The shadow home secretary's comments come after Tulip Siddiq quit as a Treasury minister over links to her aunt's political movement in Bangladesh. Philp adds the prime minister should have acted quicker and has called for the National Crime Agency to investigate "unanswered questions". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00Knowing the Prime Minister was far too slow to act in this case,
00:03the Independent Advisers report say there are still a number of
00:07unanswered questions about the origin of some of these extremely
00:10expensive properties that Tulip Sadiq somehow purchased.
00:14She had no visible means to do so.
00:16She herself claims to have forgotten certain information
00:19about how she came to own them.
00:20There are lots of unanswered questions about whether these
00:23properties are connected to Tulip Sadiq's aunt's corrupt regime
00:28in Bangladesh.
00:29I think given these questions,
00:31that are quite long-standing questions,
00:32it really does, I think,
00:34cast doubt on the Prime Minister's judgment.
00:36Of course, the Prime Minister has made these mistakes before.
00:38He appointed a transport secretary who he knew had
00:42criminal convictions for fraud,
00:44and now he's faced with a situation where one of his
00:46ministers, his own anti-corruption minister,
00:49has had to resign because of concerns she was gifted
00:53properties that were connected to the proceeds of corruption.
00:56There are still unanswered questions.
00:58The National Crime Agency has the ability to look into
01:01unexplained wealth.
01:02There are things called unexplained wealth orders,
01:05and I think this does actually merit further investigation by an
01:08organisation like the National Crime Agency to get to the truth.
01:12I think Keir Starmer has a blind spot.
01:15He's got bad judgment.
01:16He's more interested in supporting his cronies than he is
01:20in making appointments with integrity.
01:22It just shows he is a crony Prime Minister.
01:25He is not making appointments in the public interest,
01:28and he's now twice been caught out.
01:30And what makes this so striking is, of course,
01:33in the previous Parliament, it was Keir Starmer who cloaked
01:36himself in this mantle of sanctimonious moral superiority,
01:40and now we see him appointing convicted fraudsters,
01:44and now this anti-corruption minister who herself is mired
01:47in a corruption scandal.