Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, has resigned after she admitted pleading guilty to misleading the police a decade ago.
Ms Haigh appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court in 2014, six months before her election as an MP, after making a false report to officers that her mobile phone had been stolen.
She said she was “mugged while on a night out” in 2013 and gave police a list of items she believed had been taken including a work mobile phone, Sky News reported.
Ms Haigh told the news channel she later found that the phone had not been lost, and was called in for questioning by the police.
In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer released on Friday morning, Ms Haigh said she was “sorry to leave under these circumstances” but was best placed to support him “from outside government”.
Ms Haigh wrote: “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.
“I appreciate that whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government and the policies to which we are both committed.”
Ms Haigh said she would “always be grateful” for the support she had received from Sir Keir and said she took “great pride” in passing legislation to bring rail back into public ownership.
“My appointment to your Cabinet as the youngest ever woman remains one of the proudest achievements of my life, but not as proud as the steps we took to improve the lives of the British people,” she added.
“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 to ensure that the rest of our programme is delivered in full.”
In a short letter of his own, the Prime Minister replied: “Dear Louise, thank you for all you have done to deliver this Government’s transport agenda.
“You have made huge strides to take our rail system back into public ownership through the creation of Great British Railways, investing £1bn in our vital bus services and lowering cost for motorists. I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “Louise Haigh has done the right thing in resigning. It is clear she has failed to behave to the standards expected of an MP.
“In her resignation letter, she states that Keir Starmer was already aware of the fraud conviction, which 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.”
Ms Haigh joined the Labour frontbench in 2015 under Jeremy Corbyn and served as the shadow policing minister between 2017 and 2020.
She was shadow Northern Ireland secretary in Sir Keir’s first shadow cabinet, before moving to the transport brief in 2021.
Shadow cabinet knew of conviction
Ms Haigh said after the Sky News report that the shadow cabinet – in which Sir Keir served – had been informed of the conviction when she was promoted to a senior frontbench role.
It is understood that her conviction is now classified as “spent”. She had been working as a public policy manager at Aviva, the insurance firm, at the time.
Two sources told Sky News she had lost her job because of the incident.
Her position had already come under pressure, with the Tories branding the revelations “extremely concerning” and asking Sir Keir what he knew and when.
Ms Haigh was a special constable in the Metropolitan Police before entering frontline politics. She served between 2009 and 2011.
Last month, Sir Keir distanced himself from Ms Haigh’s criticism of DP World, the owner of P&O Ferries, after the company initially responded by shelving a £1 billion port expansion.
She had described P&O as a “rogue operator” and urged consumers to boycott the firm.
It prompted the company’s Dubai-based owner to abandon its plans to invest in the London Gateway port project.
The company soon reversed its decision and went ahead with the investment but it was an embarrassment for the Government that overshadowed the run up to its flagship investment summit.
During her time as transport secretary, Ms Haigh set in motion a significant overhaul of the running of the rail network.
She told MPs earlier this month that while public ownership was not a “silver bullet”, Great British Railways (GBR) would “end the fragmentation that has hampered our railways for over 30 years of privatisation”.
