As Donald Trump hits out against Kamala Harris’s use of Labour Party activists in the US, the subject of foreign election interference is once again on the agenda.

Typically, this subject is the preserve of fidgety war hawks, who use every platform that they can get to decry the risk of Russian and Chinese influence on our politics. In hushed tones, we are often told about Xi’s enthusiasm for “divisive” elements like Reform, or Putin’s concerted attempts to rig local council by-elections in order to undermine British support for Ukraine. Yet in the midst of this securocratic handwringing, the British political establishment seems to have completely missed a very real example of foreign influence on our politics, which comes from an unlikely source.

Enter Bangladesh, a country seemingly founded to answer the question “how many people can you cram into a single river delta?”. Believe it or not, events in Bangladesh are having an increasingly acute impact on our politics here in the UK, including at the ministerial level.

Last August, protestors in Bangladesh overthrew the country’s long-standing Awami League government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, following the state-sponsored killing of more than 1,000 protestors. Hasina’s government had long-since faced allegations of vote manipulation, mass media censorship, and the killing and torture of political opponents. In June, protests broke out in the country over government hiring policies which disadvantaged university graduates. The protests escalated following the government’s heavy-handed response — and on 5 August, Sheikh Hasina fled the country, settling in India after she was reportedly blocked from the UK. Since then, the country has been run by an interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, and is undergoing an uncertain but popular democratisation process. But what does any of this have to do with the UK?

More than you might expect. Bangladeshi influence networks in the UK run surprisingly deep. In Camden, councillor and former mayor Nazma Rahman has been unable to attend council meetings for a number of months now, on the grounds that she has been “in hiding”. Rahman’s husband, Azadur Rahman Azad, is the joint general secretary of the Awami League in the country’s Sylhet region, and a four-time Awami League councillor. The pair were visiting Bangladesh when Sheikh Hasina was overthrown — and despite her exile, Rahman continued to be paid her councillor allowance.

Even more concerning is the fact that, prior to the end of Awami League rule, Azad has been filmed campaigning for his wife from the Camden Mayor’s chambers. Shouldn’t we be worried that a senior Bangladeshi political figure is campaigning for a Labour councillor here in the UK, using official council premises in order to do so?

But this issue goes well beyond Camden. Rahman is a close ally of Labour MP and Treasury Minister Tulip Siddiq, who also happens to be Sheikh Hasina’s niece. On a number of occasions, Siddiq has worked closely with the UK wing of the Awami League, which is controlled directly by the party’s leadership in Dhaka.

In 2010, her website referred to her as an employee of the Awami League’s UK-based lobbying unit — and in 2017, footage emerged of Siddiq speaking at Awami League rallies in the UK, designed to generate support for the party amongst UK-based Bangladeshis. She has also relied on Awami League campaigners at successive general elections, and is currently living in a £2 million London home, owned by millionaire businessman and Awami League executive member Abdul Karim. It bears repeating that Siddiq is now a senior Labour minister, with considerable influence over the UK’s economic policy. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Siddiq is a regular fixture at events hosted by Labour Friends of Bangladesh, an advocacy organisation which aims to strengthen the Labour Party’s relationships in Bangladesh. The group has led a number of visits to Dhaka, wherein Labour MPs have had an opportunity to meet with senior Awami League figures. Previous trips have featured Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Commons Leader Lucy Powell — and Keir Starmer himself. In 2016, LFB spent £1,200 on a week-long trip to Bangladesh, during which he met with political leaders and “Bangladeshis with connections in my constituency”.

Of course, this problem goes well beyond the Labour Party. Tower Hamlets’ much-maligned mayor, Lutfur Rahman, continues to rely on the support of groups with close and controversial links to Bangladesh. In 2010, he was linked to the fundamentalist Islamic Forum for Europe, a pro-Sharia group which was assisted in its founding by Bangladesh-born activist Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin. In 2013, Mueen-Uddin was convicted of 16 killings during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, by the International Crimes Tribunal.

It is patently absurd that events in Bangladesh are having such a profound impact on British local politics

Meanwhile in 2014, Rahman provided a character reference for Mahee Ferdhaus, a Bangladeshi businessman who was later sentenced to three years in jail for money laundering. In the same year, BBC’s Panorama alleged that Rahman had personally diverted over £3.6 million of grants to charities run by Bangladeshis and Somalis in return for electoral support, while also employing a journalist from a Bangladeshi news channel that had lavished Rahman with positive coverage. Why are Bangladeshi patronage networks being used to win local elections in London?

It is patently absurd that events in Bangladesh are having such a profound impact on British local politics. That developments in Dhaka now prompt protest and celebration on the streets of London should set alarm bells ringing. Something has gone terribly wrong in our handling of immigration, integration, and foreign influence. By failing to take this threat seriously, we have left ourselves exposed to genuine subversion on behalf of a dysfunctional South Asian regime. 

Ignore the fretting of the war hawks — this is the UK’s real foreign influence scandal. If Putin really wants to influence our politics, he doesn’t need to bother with cyber attacks — he should just apply for a visa from the Home Office.