Keir Starmer’s Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has admitted to pleading guilty to an offence in 2014 after incorrectly telling police that her mobile phone was stolen.
Ms Haigh has described the incident as a “genuine mistake”, but some social media commentators are calling for her resignation and citing her history of outspokenly calling on other Parliamentarians to quit their roles as a reason to practice what she preaches.
In the last decade, the MP for Sheffield Heeley has called on her colleagues to resign no less than five times, first demanding that then-Prime Minister Theresa May step down in 2017. “I think Theresa May had a shocking campaign. I’m amazed that she’s not resigned. Clearly she has to,” she told Sheffield Live after the June general election.
She then contributed to the tide against then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd in April 2018, telling BBC Radio Sheffield that she had “deliberately misled parliament” over targets for removing illegal immigrants. “She has to go,” Ms Haigh said. “If your only excuse is gross incompetence then you cannot remain in post.”
Her most vociferous calls were directed towards Boris Johnson after the Partygate scandal, however. “This is a matter of trust and leadership and I don’t think that the man who set the rules and asked the British people to make unimaginable sacrifices, and then is found to have repeatedly flouted them, can remain in post. We think he should resign,” she told the BBC in March 2022.
“He has clearly repeatedly lied to the House of Commons and to the British people and the only question he should now answer is when he will resign,” she later added on LBC.
And, later that year, she posted on X: “You can’t make the rules, then break the rules. You can’t have one rule for yourself, and different rules for everyone else. But now it’s time that the rules applied. Resign.”
Ms Haigh also accused Mr Johnson of “deceiving the police” in the House of Commons in 2019, suggesting he had “seriously breached” public trust by “politicising serving officers”.
Speaking of her offence connected to a false report to police – which is now believed to be spent – the Transport Secretary told Sky News: “In 2013 I was mugged while on a night out. I was a young woman and the experience was terrifying.
“I reported it to the police and gave them a list of what I believed had been taken – including a work mobile phone that had been issued by my employer.
“Some time later I discovered that the mobile in question had not been taken. In the interim I had been issued with another work phone.
“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.”
Nigel Huddleston, chair of the Conservative Party has said Keir Starmer has “serious questions” to answer about the matter.
Mr Huddleston said: “These are extremely concerning revelations about the person responsible for managing £30 billion of taxpayers’ money.
“Keir Starmer has serious questions to answer regarding what he knew and when about the person he appointed as Transport Secretary admitting to having misled the police.”
