Transport Secretary Louise Haigh resigns after Sky News revealed mobile phone guilty plea

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has resigned after it emerged she pleaded guilty to an offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.

In a letter to the prime minister, she described the incident as a “mistake” but said that “whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government”.

It comes after Sky News revealed details of the offence last night, with Ms Haigh saying in a statement she believed her phone had been stolen after she was “mugged on a night out” but later discovered this was not the case.

She alluded to Sir Keir knowing about this in her resignation letter, telling him: “As you know, in 2013 I was mugged in London. As a 24-year-old woman, the experience was terrifying. In the immediate aftermath, I reported the incident to the police.

“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.”

Ms Haigh then said that while she is “totally committed to our political project,” she believes “it will be best served by my supporting you from outside government”.

The MP for Sheffield Heeley added: “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.”

‘Questions’ for Starmer

In response, Sir Keir Starmer thanked Ms Haigh for “all you have done to deliver this government’s ambitious transport agenda” and said: “I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future.”

The letters were dated yesterday, 28th November, but only made public this morning.

A Conservative Party spokesman said Ms Haigh has “done the right thing in resigning”.

They said the incident “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,” they added.

The straightforward reason for Louise Haigh’s rapid resignation

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

While government sources insist this resignation was Louise Haigh’s decision, the political weather around the now former transport secretary always made walking from her job a potential outcome.

As well as being the first cabinet minister to resign, Ms Haigh was also the first cabinet minister to be publicly rebuked by Sir Keir Starmer.

That was over calls she made to boycott P&O ferries after the mass sacking of hundreds of workers, comments that led to a £1bn investment being temporarily shelved.

Hailing from the left of Labour, the Sheffield MP also has connections with former Downing Street chief of staff Sue Gray.

But with a new team now in place at the top of Number 10 – some had already been speculating about her future in government.

The ultimate trigger for this resignation is likely more straightforward though.

In 2022, speaking about the partygate scandal, Sir Keir Starmer said “you can’t be a lawmaker and a lawbreaker”.

This appears to show what that mantra looks like when transplanted into the realities of government.

Conviction just before 2015 election

Sky News understands Ms Haigh appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court six months before the 2015 general election, after making a false report to officers that her mobile phone had been stolen.

It’s understood her conviction is now classified as ‘spent’.

Three separate sources claimed to Sky News that she made the false report to benefit personally, with two of the sources alleging she wanted a more modern work handset that was being rolled out to her colleagues at the time.

The outgoing cabinet minister had been working as a public policy manager at Aviva, but two sources said she lost her job at the insurance firm because of the incident.

The offence was disclosed in full when Ms Haigh was appointed to Sir Keir’s shadow cabinet, Sky News understands.

‘Genuine mistake’

In her statement last night, Ms Haigh called the incident a “genuine mistake from which I did not make any gain”.

She said she had been “issued with another work phone” in the interim between making the police report and discovering it had not been stolen, and was called in for questioning when the original device was switched on, which “triggered police attention”.

“My solicitor advised me not to comment during that interview and I regret following that advice,” she said.

“The police referred the matter to the CPS and I appeared before Southwark magistrates.”

Ms Haigh continued: “Under the advice of my solicitor I pleaded guilty – despite the fact this was a genuine mistake from which I did not make any gain.

“The magistrates accepted all of these arguments and gave me the lowest possible outcome (a discharge) available.”

Career in Met before politics

As transport secretary, Ms Haigh appointed members of the board that oversees the British Transport Police.

Before entering politics, the MP was a special constable in the Metropolitan Police – serving between 2009 and 2011 in the South London Borough of Lambeth, close to where she was convicted several years later.

She was appointed shadow policing minister by Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and frequently drew on her experience in the Met when challenging the Tory government on the rising demands on officers.

Sir Keir promoted the MP to shadow Northern Ireland secretary in 2020 before moving her to shadow transport secretary in 2021.