Louise Haigh resigns as Transport Secretary
Louise Haigh has resigned as Transport Secretary after it emerged she pleaded guilty to a criminal offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.
It is understood the incident was disclosed to Sir Keir Starmer when she joined the shadow cabinet.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, she said she is “totally committed to our political project” but believes “it will be best served by my supporting you from outside Government”.
“I am sorry to leave under these circumstances, but I take pride in what we have done. I will continue to fight every day for the people of Sheffield Heeley who I was first and foremost elected to represent and to ensure that the rest of our programme is delivered in full,” she wrote.
In a reply, Sir Keir thanked Ms Haigh for her work to deliver the Government’s transport agenda.
Stolen
On Thursday evening, Sky News and the Times newspaper reported that Ms Haigh had admitted an offence in 2014 following the incident. She had reported to police the device was stolen when she was “mugged” in 2013.
It is understood that it was a fraud offence and that the conviction is now spent.
Ms Haigh said she discovered “some time later” that the phone had not been taken.
She said the matter was a “genuine mistake” from which she “did not make any gain”, and that magistrates gave her the “lowest possible outcome”.
Ms Haigh has been Sheffield Heeley MP since 2015 and held a number of shadow ministerial and shadow cabinet roles before becoming Transport Secretary when Labour won the election in July. Before she entered politics she spent time as a special constable.
She was working for insurance giant Aviva at the time of the incident, according to the reports.
Mistake
In her letter to Sir Keir, she wrote: “I gave the police a list of my possessions that I believed had been stolen, including my work phone.
“Some time later, I discovered that the handset in question was still in my house.
“I should have immediately informed my employer and not doing so straight away was a mistake.
“I appreciate that whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government and the policies to which we are both committed.”
Sir Keir said Ms Haigh had made “huge strides” as Transport Secretary to take the rail system back into public ownership through the creation of Great British Railways and investing £1 billion into vital bus services.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Louise Haigh has done the right thing in resigning. It is clear she has failed to behave to the standards expected of an MP.
“In her resignation letter, she states that Keir Starmer was already aware of the fraud conviction, which raises questions as to why the Prime Minister appointed Ms Haigh to Cabinet with responsibility for a £30bn budget?
“The onus is now on Keir Starmer to explain this obvious failure of judgement to the British public.”
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I can see the usual suspects going ape over this today.
Labour, grrrrr.
Well, as you’re often given to say Jeff, we shouldn’t have convicted criminals in positions of power, should we?
Ah, but Louise was his kind of convicted criminal, see butt !!
Anyone flouncing around like she does is just an immature attention seeking buffoon.
Keep up at the back.
Keeping up with you would be a sign of lack of ambition. Hence better to go one’s own way.
Never said that, the usual suspects are out the gates and at the first hurdle.
Timing is interesting, what are the Tory party up to today?
If this was a Tory MP Jeff you’d be frothing at the mouth.
Comprehension missing again.
We have 14 years of the Tory party and client press protecting their own, Johnson, Davies, Wallis, Pincher, Patterson, tractor porn guy, MPs trying to influence judges in a sex abuse case etc. I am amused at the think tanks and usual suspects losing it over this. You included it seems.
Is she in cabinet now?
Sounds like he is frothing anyway. Been mixing with some infected hounds ?
A bit hard to maintain the holier than thou facade today?
I’m not the one who preaches about it Alun. It’s generally Labour supporters who claim the moral high ground on such matters.
I see gbeebies is after this with gusto but avoid McMurdoch for example.
Just watching the circus in action.
Can’t blame them though: this is the most fun we’ve had since Reeves’s magic CV.
Ah, avoiding genuine abuse is ok then. Gbeebies and reform happy with nige running away from an interview the other day when he was challenged over violent abuse on a woman by one of his MP’s, press are all a bit mum. Nige says he deserves Christian forgiveness, should we apply the same here? I mean if St Nige says it a thing it must be a thing.
See the game being played to the masses?
I can see no reason for her to resign. Her solicitor at the time, however, should give up practising law. The advice was atrocious and a ‘comment’ interview would probably resulted in a no charge or at worst a caution.
If anyone believes that this was a minor ‘genuine mistake’ I have a bridge to sell you. You don’t get prosecuted for believing your phone was stolen and, shortly after, realising it hadn’t been.
Starmer previously, ‘Lawbreakers can’t be
Lawmakers’, says more about his integrity, as he had been informed about it in 2020.
Starmer evidently has an array of principles which he draws upon depending on the circumstances. Very flexible man.
Labour good, tory bad
It’s “do as I say not as I do” with Labour. Keir Starmer & co proclaimed they were so virtuous and whiter than white during the recent general election. But they had a little illicit secret. You’ve got to be very careful when criticising political rivals, especially if you too have a vast array skeletons in your own closet.