The UK Labour government that won the general election less than five months ago has its first cabinet resignation, after its transport secretary shocked Westminster by quitting over a decade-old conviction over the reporting of a phone theft.
Louise Haigh, who was due to oversee the nationalisation of Britain’s railways, wrote to prime minister Keir Starmer on Friday morning to say she was resigning to prevent a “distraction” for the government.
Her resignation comes a day after it was revealed that she was convicted 10 years ago for making a misleading police report about a real incident in which she was mugged in 2013. Ms Haigh had initially told police her work phone was among the various items stolen in the mugging, although she later found it at home. However, she did not initially tell police or her employer at the time, Aviva, that her work phone had, in fact, not been among the items stolen. She had been issued with a new work phone by Aviva.
When the old work phone was later reactivated she was prosecuted, and pleaded guilty to a minor fraud offence. It is believed Ms Haigh declared the matter, which she says was a “genuine mistake”, to the proper Whitehall authorities when appointed to shadow cabinet in recent years, but her conviction was not known publicly until now.
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“As you know, in 2013 I was mugged in London. As a 24-year old woman, the experience was terrifying,” she wrote to the prime minister in her resignation letter. She acknowledged that she “should have immediately informed my employer” when she found out the phone had not actually been stolen.
“Whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government.”
Mr Starmer thanked her for her work to date and said she still had a “huge contribution to make in future”.
He announced that he will replace Ms Haigh with Heidi Alexander, who served as the deputy mayor for transport in London between 2018 and 2021.
Ms Haigh, a Sheffield MP who is immediately identifiable in parliament due to her distinctive personal style, was the youngest woman ever appointed to a UK cabinet.
She previously served as Labour’s shadow Northern Ireland secretary before moving to the shadow transport brief. After Labour’s thumping election victory, she was in line to deliver on one of the party’s core policies regarding the railways, but will now return to the back benches.
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