UK transport secretary quits after fraud investigation revealed

Louise Haigh has resigned as UK's Transport Secretary just 12 hours after it was revealed she had been convicted of fraud for a missing work phone incident.

Haigh submitted her resignation in a letter to Labour leader Keir Starmer, stating that “whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering the work of this government”, Caliber.Az reports via the Guardian.

The resignation followed the revelation that Haigh had pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation in 2014. The conviction stemmed from an investigation by her former employer, Aviva, into a missing work phone.

British media reported that Haigh had been investigated by both Aviva and the police over the incident.

In her statement, Haigh explained that while working for Aviva in her mid-20s, she was mugged during a night out. She provided police with a list of stolen items from her handbag, including her work phone, which she assumed had been taken. After receiving a replacement phone, Haigh later found the original phone and turned it on, prompting police to question her.

In her resignation letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Haigh admitted that not informing Aviva immediately after finding her missing phone “was a mistake.”

Starmer accepted her resignation, praising her work on bringing the rail system back into public ownership and expressing confidence in her continued contribution to Labour's future. “I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future,” he wrote.

Following Haigh’s resignation, Swindon South MP Heidi Alexander was appointed as the new Transport Secretary.

Haigh’s conviction has been spent and is no longer on her criminal record. She had disclosed the incident when appointed to Starmer’s shadow cabinet in 2020, though she had not publicly commented on it until now.

Details surrounding the incident remain disputed. The Times reported that Aviva launched an investigation after Haigh reported multiple company mobile phones had gone missing or been stolen, with the police reviewing more than one case, though the fraud charge specifically concerned one phone.

Sky News cited two sources claiming that Haigh reported her phone as stolen to obtain a newer model from Aviva. However, a source close to Haigh dismissed this claim as “absolute nonsense,” describing it as an honest mistake.

Haigh, who became the youngest person appointed to Starmer's cabinet, is the first to leave the position five months after Labour's victory in the general election.

In her resignation letter, Haigh thanked Starmer for his support and expressed pride in the progress Labour had made since the election. She reiterated her commitment to Labour’s political goals but concluded that she could best serve the party from outside of government.

By Tamilla Hasanova