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UK transport secretary Louise Haigh has resigned after admitting that she had pleaded guilty to a criminal offence over a missing mobile phone, in a fresh setback to the government after a bruising first five months in office.
Haigh said in a statement on Thursday that she pleaded guilty a decade ago to fraud by false representation relating to a mobile phone she wrongly claimed had been stolen.
The MP said she had told police she lost the device, which had been provided by her employer at the time Aviva, during a “terrifying” mugging on a night out in 2013, only to discover later it had not been taken after all.
“I should have immediately informed my employer and not doing so straight away was a mistake,” Haigh said in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
“Whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government,” she added.
Haigh’s resignation is the first by a cabinet minister since Starmer led Labour to victory in July’s general election, and caps a particularly difficult few weeks since chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the biggest tax increases in a generation in the Budget.
Acknowledging Haigh’s resignation, Starmer said in a brief letter that she had helped to deliver an ambitious transport agenda. “I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future,” he said.
An ally of Haigh insisted that Starmer had not forced her to resign. “Absolutely not — it was her decision,” they said.
Her exit comes at a critical moment for the government’s transport policy. As transport secretary, she was responsible for everything from High Speed 2 rail to legislation on electric vehicle sales.
The 37-year-old MP had been leading fraught talks with the car industry over ways to water down rules on EV sales, which manufacturers say are too onerous given demand for EVs is weakening.
It also comes less than 24 hours after her flagship rail nationalisation bill became law, paving the way for the reversal of the privatisation of the railways.
Haigh’s departure marks the loss of one of a handful of more leftwing figures in the cabinet.
In October she criticised P&O Ferries as a “cowboy operator” over its decision to fire and re-hire 800 workers two years ago, and said she was boycotting the business.
The incident caused a brief political storm, with Downing Street saying the comments “were her own personal view and don’t represent the view of the government”, as ministers tried to convince the ferry group’s owner DP World to finalise a £1bn UK investment.
It subsequently emerged that her language had been cleared by Downing Street.
Before being elected Haigh worked as a public policy manager for Aviva. She also volunteered as a special constable in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary from 2009 to 2011.
Haigh said she intended to remain as MP for Sheffield Heeley, which she has represented since 2015. She was first elected only six months after the phone-related offence, for which Haigh said on Thursday she had received a discharge, the “lowest possible outcome”.
“I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will be best served by my supporting you from outside government,” she said in the letter to Starmer.
A spokesperson for the opposition Conservatives said Haigh was right to resign, claiming she had fallen short of the standards expected of an MP. They added that Starmer needed to explain the “obvious failure of judgment to the British public” in appointing Haigh given her resignation letter says the prime minister knew about the conviction.
