Transport secretary Louise Haigh quits after fraud offence revealed

Louise Haigh has resigned as transport secretary after it emerged she pleaded responsible to a fraud offence a decade in the past.

Downing Road has named justice minister Heidi Alexander as her alternative.

Haigh has admitted telling police in 2013 she had misplaced her work cell phone in a mugging, however later discovered it had not been taken.

She was given a conditional discharge by magistrates, following the incident which occurred earlier than she grew to become an MP.

Haigh’s is the primary resignation from Sir Keir Starmer’s authorities and the 37-year-old mentioned her appointment because the “youngest ever” feminine cupboard minister “stays one of many proudest achievements of my life”.

Nonetheless, it raises questions over the prime minister’s judgement in appointing somebody with a spent conviction to his cupboard, having beforehand attacked the Conservatives throughout Partygate, saying “lawbreakers cannot be lawmakers”.

The brand new transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, returned to the Commons for a second stint as an MP in July this 12 months after standing down in 2018.

She spent greater than three years as London’s deputy mayor for transport beneath Sadiq Khan and was additionally deputy head of Transport for London.

Information of Haigh’s conviction emerged on Thursday night, in experiences by the Instances and Sky Information.

Haigh issued a press release giving her model of the 2013 incident, which occurred when she was working as a public coverage supervisor for insurance coverage firm Aviva.

She mentioned she had reported a “terrifying” mugging in London to police. She mentioned she had informed police the cellphone was one among numerous gadgets she believed had been stolen, and was issued with a brand new work cellphone.

A while later, she added, she had found the handset was nonetheless in her home and he or she switched it on, which “triggered police consideration” resulting in her being known as in for questioning.

“My solicitor suggested me to not remark throughout that interview and I remorse following that recommendation,” she mentioned. The matter was despatched to magistrates.

Haigh mentioned she pleaded responsible to creating a false report back to police at a magistrates’ court docket, six months earlier than turning into an MP within the 2015 common election, and acquired a discharge – the “lowest attainable final result”.

She added: “Underneath the recommendation of my solicitor I pleaded responsible – regardless of the very fact this was a real mistake from which I didn’t make any achieve.”

However The Instances claims this row pertains to a couple of cell phone being stolen or going lacking.

The BBC understands Haigh was unaware of any investigation by her former employer, Aviva, involving a couple of cell phone, as reported by the newspaper.

Aviva shouldn’t be commenting on the story.

On Friday, Haigh sent a resignation letter to Sir Keir, saying she didn’t need to turn out to be a distraction and Labour can be “greatest served by my supporting you from outdoors authorities”.

In response, Sir Keir mentioned Haigh had made “large strides” as transport secretary to take the rail system again into public possession, and thanked her for her work.

Whitehall sources informed the BBC the transport secretary declared her spent conviction to Sir Keir when he appointed her to his shadow cabinet in 2020, when the Labour Social gathering was in opposition.

She didn’t inform the federal government’s propriety and ethics crew about it when she grew to become a member of the cupboard after Labour gained July’s common election.

She believed it was adequate to have disclosed her spent conviction to Sir Keir when Labour was in opposition, the BBC has been informed.

However Downing Road has refused to say what Sir Keir knew about Haigh’s conviction earlier than tales about it appeared within the media on Thursday night.

Questioned for 25 minutes by reporters, the PM’s official spokesman would say solely that Sir Keir had accepted Haigh’s resignation after “additional info” emerged.

Spent convictions stay on a person’s legal report for all times, however they don’t have to disclose them in job functions, beneath the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.

A Conservative Social gathering spokesman mentioned: “Louise Haigh has accomplished the fitting factor in resigning. It’s clear she has did not behave to the requirements anticipated of an MP.

“In her resignation letter, she states that Keir Starmer was already conscious of the fraud conviction, which raises questions as to why the prime kinister appointed Ms Haigh to Cupboard with duty for a £30bn price range?

“The onus is now on Keir Starmer to clarify this apparent failure of judgement to the British public.”

Haigh was liable for one of many authorities’s flagship insurance policies, the re-nationalisation of the nation’s rail community beneath Nice British Rail.

Nonetheless, she was additionally the primary cupboard minister the PM publicly rebuked, over remarks about P&O Ferries final month.

Haigh described P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” and urged folks to boycott the corporate, sparking a row with the ferry firm’s father or mother operation DP World.

When it threatened to boycott a serious funding summit in response, Sir Keir mentioned Haigh’s feedback have been “not the view of the federal government”.

Born in 1987 in Sheffield, Haigh studied politics at Nottingham College and regulation at Birkbeck, College of London.

She labored as a store steward for the union Unite and as a Metropolitan Police officer in London’s Lambeth borough earlier than coming into politics.

She has been the MP for Sheffield Heeley since 2015, and held numerous shadow ministerial and shadow cupboard roles earlier than turning into transport secretary when Labour gained the election practically 5 months in the past.