Louise Haigh has resigned as transport secretary after The Times revealed she was convicted of fraud in a police investigation involving stolen and missing mobile phones.
The cabinet minister said in a letter to the prime minister that she had made the decision because “this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government”.
Haigh, the MP for Sheffield Heeley, wrote: “I will always be grateful for the support you have shown me, and I take great pride in what we achieved since the election.”
She said: “I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will 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.”
On Friday morning, Downing Street announced that Haigh would be replaced as transport secretary by Heidi Alexander, the MP for Swindon South.
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Haigh pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in 2014 after an internal investigation by Aviva, the insurance giant.
Haigh worked as public policy manager at Aviva between 2012 and 2015 before becoming the Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley.
The Times has been told that the company launched an investigation after Haigh said that company mobile phones had been stolen or had gone missing on repeated occasions.
Aviva referred the matter to the police and Haigh was prosecuted in 2014. She pleaded guilty at a magistrates’ court. The conviction is now spent, which means it has been removed from her record.
After being approached by The Times, Haigh said that she had been mugged during a night out in 2013, describing it as a “terrifying” experience.
She said that she reported the mugging to the police and gave officers a list of what had been taken, including her work mobile phone.
“Some time later I discovered the mobile in question had not been taken. In the interim I had been issued with another work phone,” she said.
“The original work device being switched on triggered police attention and I was asked to come in for questioning. My solicitor advised me not to comment during that interview and I regret following that advice.
“The police referred the matter to the CPS and I appeared before Southwark magistrates. 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.”
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The police were supplied with details of more than one instance that had been looked into by Aviva but the criminal charge related to one phone.
She declared her conviction “in full” to Starmer on being appointed as shadow Northern Ireland secretary in 2020.
Haigh was elected as MP for Sheffield Heeley in May 2015. Electoral rules disqualify people from standing only if they have been sentenced to three months or more in jail without the option of a fine.
Aged 37, Haigh was the youngest member of the cabinet. She has never publicly declared her conviction even when making judgments about political rivals who had dealings with the police.
In 2022 Haigh called on Boris Johnson to resign after police issued 20 fines over parties held at No 10 during the coronavirus lockdown.
She said that the British people wanted a prime minister “they can trust and respect” adding that “any other prime minister, at any other point in our history, would have had the decency to resign by now”.
She served as shadow policing minister under Jeremy Corbyn and made public comments on a series of issues including fraud. She said that the Tories had been “caught redhanded” cutting the police budget and later lamented the “shambolic nature of the battle against cyberfraud”.
Haigh survived the change of leadership after Labour lost the election in 2019, becoming shadow Northern Ireland secretary, then shadow transport secretary.
On Starmer’s election she was appointed as transport secretary. She was overseeing some of the government’s highest-profile policies, including the nationalisation of the railways.
She was recently embroiled in an international row after her comments about the employment practices of P&O Ferries put a major investment in jeopardy. The deal was salvaged after an intervention by No 10.
Aviva declined to comment.
