Former UK Middle East minister accused of breaching transparency rules in Bahrain advisory role | Politics
By: Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor | Published: 2025-07-15 15:01:00 | Source: www.theguardian.com
A former UK Middle East minister has been accused of breaching transparency rules over a paid advisory role with an influential Bahraini centre that has links to the Gulf state’s government.
The Conservative peer Lord Tariq Ahmad, who denies wrongdoing, was cleared by a watchdog to take up his role as a paid adviser to the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence (KHC).
The centre is supervised by Bahrain’s ministry of foreign affairs, but the UK’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said Ahmad was free to undertake the role – for which the salary has not been disclosed – because he said he “did not have official dealings/contact with the KHC during [his] time in office.”
Documents unearthed by human rights activists appear to show that Ahmad, who…
