Transport secretary Louise Haigh has become the first person to resign from Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet.
She announced she was standing down on Friday after it was revealed she had a conviction for making a false statement to the police that her work phone had been stolen in a mugging in 2013.
It is understood that Sir Keir was aware of the conviction, which is now spent, when Ms Haigh joined the shadow cabinet. She said she had made a “genuine mistake” when she reported the phone stolen, as she had not realised it was in her home at the time of the mugging.
But who is Ms Haigh, and what exactly happened? Here’s everything we know.
Who is Louise Haigh?
Ms Haigh has been the MP for Sheffield Heeley since 2015. Prior to being appointed transport secretary following Labour's victory in the July election, she served in a number of shadow cabinet and ministerial positions.
She worked for a while as a special constable for the Met and worked for insurance company Aviva before going into politics.
Under Jeremy Corbyn, she became a member of the shadow frontbench in 2015 as the shadow minister for the civil service and digital reform.
In 2020, during the heated post-Brexit trade discussions, Ms Haigh was appointed Northern Ireland's shadow secretary, before taking on the position of shadow transport secretary in 2021.
Following Labour's victory in the general election, Ms Haigh was named transport secretary on July 5, making her the youngest member of the Cabinet.
Career highlights
Ms Haigh was described as possessing “terrier-like intensity” following her election as a Sheffield Heeley MP in May 2015.
She was commended by then-House of Commons speaker John Bercow for her efforts to stop tax office closures, and the Yorkshire Post named her the most diligent of the new MPs the following year due to the quantity of her speeches and parliamentary questions.
Ms Haigh said in October she was boycotting P&O Ferries and urged others to follow suit after it laid off hundreds of employees in 2022 and replaced them with lower-paid agency workers,
The remarks were publicly criticised by Sir Keir who stated that they were “not the view of the Government”.
Ms Haigh made a commitment to publicise train services on British railways during the election campaign. The day before she resigned, the Government's plans to renationalise train passenger services were signed into law.
The Government will be able to take over services from private companies when their franchises expire or their terms are breached, according to the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, which has now received royal assent.
Ms Haigh said this highlighted a “a historic moment for our railways”.
Previous controversies
Boris Johnson's racist comments would bar him from joining the police yet sadly have not prevented him from becoming Prime Minister.https://t.co/lky77s4oEM
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) August 9, 2019
As well as the P&O saga, Ms Haigh has caused a stir in other ways, from her no-holds-barred tweeting in criticism of Boris Johnson (including alleging racism above) to calling for other senior Conservatives to resign.
It’s not just on the other side of the benches, however, that she has made a name for herself, as her alleged refusal to discipline an aide who backed strikes was seen as an affront to Sir Keir’s authority.
She also provoked the ire of cyclists by responding “God, no” when asked if she rides a bike. She later said it was a light-hearted joke about Sheffield and added that the government is committed to active transport.
Why has Louise Haigh quit?
Ms Haigh has resigned from her position as transport secretary after entering a guilty plea to a crime involving falsely reporting to police that a work mobile device was stolen in 2013.
The 37-year-old stated in a letter to Sir Keir that although she was “totally committed to our political project” it would 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.
She said of the events in 2013 that led to her conviction that she had made a “genuine mistake”. It is understood that the conviction is now spent and that the offence was fraud.
Sir Keir expressed gratitude to Ms Haigh for her efforts in advancing the government's transport agenda.
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."
