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 Labour government after a bruising first five months in office.
Heidi Alexander, a justice minister and former deputy mayor for transport in London, was appointed on Friday as Haigh’s replacement.
Haigh said on Thursday that she pleaded guilty a decade ago to an offence relating to a mobile phone she wrongly claimed had been stolen. The offence was fraud by false representation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accepted her resignation late on Thursday night, amid concerns in Downing Street that she had not given a full public explanation of the circumstances behind the conviction.
“This wasn’t going to go away in 24 hours,” said one government official. “There were lots of strings to pull on.”
Haigh said she told police she lost a phone, 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.
“Whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government,” she added.
Her resignation is the first by a cabinet minister since Starmer led Labour to victory in July’s general election, and caps a difficult few weeks since chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the biggest tax increases in a generation in last month’s 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. Starmer’s allies have not ruled out Haigh’s return to the front bench.
Haigh worked at Aviva alongside Sam White, a longtime Labour adviser who was the insurer’s director of public policy in 2014. White later became Starmer’s chief of staff in 2021.
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 rehire 800 workers two years ago, and said she was boycotting the business.
The incident caused a 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.
Haigh said she intended to remain as MP for Sheffield Heeley, which she has represented since 2015. She said on Thursday that she had received a discharge for her 2014 conviction, the “lowest possible outcome”.
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.
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.