Louise Haigh exits from No10 (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer must explain his “obvious failure of judgement” to Brits after it was revealed he knew about his former Transport Secretary’s fraud conviction for years.
as Transport Secretary after it emerged she pleaded guilty to a criminal offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.
It is understood the incident was disclosed to Sir when she joined the shadow cabinet.
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 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 to explain this obvious failure of judgement to the British public.”
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In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Haigh said she is “totally committed to our political project” but believes “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,” she wrote.
In a reply, Sir Keir thanked Ms Haigh for her work to deliver the Government’s transport agenda.
On Thursday evening, it was reported that Ms Haigh had admitted an offence in 2014 following the incident. She had reported to police the device was stolen when she was “mugged” in 2013.
It is understood that it was a fraud offence and that the conviction is now spent.
Ms Haigh said she discovered “some time later” that the phone had not been taken.
She said the matter was a “genuine mistake” from which she “did not make any gain”, and that magistrates gave her the “lowest possible outcome”.
Tory MPs have taken aim at the Labour government for its communication failures since coming into power in July.
New MP Ben Obese-Jecty MP joked: “I’m old enough to remember when the sacking of Sue Gray meant that the No.10 comms operation was going to improve under Morgan McSweeney.”