British PM Keir Starmer refuses to meet Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to meet Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who is in London seeking UK support to recover billions of dollars allegedly siphoned off by the former Sheikh Hasina regime, Financial Times reported on Thursday. 

"I have no direct conversation with him,” Yunus told the Financial Times. While expressing confidence in UK cooperation, he added, “I have no doubt he would support us. This is stolen money.” 

UK government officials confirmed there were no plans for Starmer to meet Yunus during his four-day visit.

Yunus, a Nobel laureate and current head of Bangladesh's interim government, said the UK had a “legal and… moral” obligation to help track funds allegedly laundered into the country. “The objective of the trip is to bring out more enthusiastic support,” he said, noting that UK authorities were already providing some assistance.

Yunus has been at the helm since August 2024, when Sheikh Hasina was ousted following a large-scale student protest movement. The former prime minister is now facing multiple legal cases.

The Hasina-era investigations have raised political ripples in the UK too. In January, Tulip Siddiq — then anti-corruption minister and a close ally of Starmer — resigned after being named in corruption allegations involving support from Awami League-linked figures. Siddiq, who is Sheikh Hasina's niece, denied wrongdoing but stepped down from her ministerial post.

She has since written to Yunus, asking to meet and “clear up the misunderstanding” surrounding the accusations. But Yunus declined, saying: “This is a legal issue… a legal process. It’s not personal involving me.”

Meanwhile, Yunus said the interim government wants stable ties with India but added something goes wrong every time because of all the fake news. Speaking at a public event hosted by Chatham House on Wednesday, Yunus said: "We want to build the best of relationship with India. It’s our neighbour, we don’t want to have any kind of basic problem with them,” he said. “But somehow things go wrong every time because of all the fake news coming from the Indian press… and many people say it has connections with policymakers on the top.”

"This is what makes Bangladesh very jittery, very, very angry. We try to get over this anger but a whole barrage of things keeps happening in cyberspace. We can’t just get away from that...suddenly they say something, do something, anger comes back. This is our big task, to make sure we can have at least a peaceful life to go on with our life. To create the life we are dreaming of."

Yunus also addressed Hasina’s presence in India. “All the anger (against Hasina) has now transferred to India because she went there,” he said. Recalling a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Yunus said: "I simply said: you want to host her, I cannot force you to abandon that policy. But please help us in making sure she doesn’t speak to Bangladeshi people the way she is doing (online). She announces on such and such date, such and such hour, she will speak and the whole (of) Bangladesh gets very angry."

Yunus added: “It’s (an) explosive situation, you can’t just walk away by saying it’s the social media.” He reiterated that national elections would be held by the first half of 2026 and clarified he had no intention of participating in an elected government. “No way,” he said.