Why did you let a convicted criminal into your cabinet Keir & when did you find out? Tories ask – as PM under pressure
SIR Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to explain why Louise Haigh was made Transport Secretary despite a fraud conviction.
In a blistering letter, Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Alex Burghart demanded the PM come clean about when he first learned of her criminal past.
He accused the Prime Minister of ignoring Labour’s own promise of “propriety, ethical behaviour and transparency in Government”.
And he questioned why Ms Haigh’s conviction – now classified as spent – wasn’t a barrier to her appointment in July, writing: “If you didn’t see it as a disqualifying factor then, why has it become today?”
The Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster also pressed Sir Keir to reveal whether the Propriety and Ethics Team was informed at the time and if any advice was sought or followed.
Ms Haigh quit after admitting she falsely reported her work phone stolen in 2013 — only to later find it at home.
The incident led to a fraud conviction in 2014, which Haigh described as a “mistake.”
Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir knew about the conviction when he handed Haigh the £30 billion-a-year transport brief.
“The Prime Minister has accepted her resignation and she has acknowledged that the issue will inevitably be a distraction on delivering the work of Government,” the Prime Minister’s deputy spokesman said.
Asked if Sir Keir knew about Ms Haigh’s conviction when he appointed her to the Cabinet, he said: “Following further information emerging, the Prime Minister has accepted Louise Haigh’s resignation.”
He did not specify what the new information was.
He said he would not “get into individual conversations”, saying only that ministers are expected to adhere to the ministerial code.
Asked whether she was asked to resign or offered, he said: “She resigned.”
Source close to Ms Haigh claim Sir Keir was made aware of the incident when she was appointed to his Shadow Cabinet.
The ex-Labour minister, 37, says she was mugged during a “terrifying” night out in 2013 and gave police a list of items missing from her handbag.
She included in that list her work mobile phone, but discovered “some time later” it had not actually been stolen.
Haigh told Sky News she regrets the mistake and she pleaded guilty to an offence in connection with misleading the police.
The Guardian reports Haigh was given a conditional discharge for fraud by misrepresentation.
She said she was called into speak to police when the work phone was switched on.
In a statement she said: “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.”
Sky News cites sources saying that Haigh made the false report to benefit personally and get a newer phone from the company.
Two sources claimed she then lost her job over the incident.
Haigh, at the time, worked as a public policy manager at insurance company Aviva.
She worked at the company between 2012 and 2015, after which she was elected MP for Sheffield Heeley.
Haigh appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court six months before the 2015 general election where she was elected to parliament.
In her statement, Haigh claimed the Court gave her the lowest possible outcome available, a discharge.
Her conviction is now considered “spent”.
This morning, Ms Haigh announced her resignation in a letter to the PM.
She has been replaced by by Labour MP Heidi Alexander, who previously served as Deputy Mayor of London for Transport.
Huge blow for 'furious' PM
By Harry Cole, Political Editor
YOU could be forgiven for thinking Louise Haigh’s brief spell in public life was criminal – noted only for handing striking train drivers billions in pay rises in the very week pensioners were robbed of their winter fuel payments.
Yet we now learn she was an actual convicted criminal brought into the heart of government.
It is a rite of passage for any Prime Minister to lose their first Cabinet minister but you can tell by the brevity of his reply to Haigh’s resignation letter quite how angry Sir Keir Starmer is today.
For a man who stood on the steps of Downing Street promising an end to sleaze, it is an extraordinary position that the Prime Minister finds himself in.
Like so many of the predecessors he attacked, he’s mired in scandal.
On the very thing that Sir Keir asked to be judged on – ethics – his administration has taken a body blow after the fact convicted fraudster was exposed around his cabinet table.
While the PM may rightly be fuming, he cannot escape a number of questions about the appointment of his Transport Secretary: who knew what and when?
Haigh claims Starmer was made aware of her fraud when she was hired to his opposition front bench — but his chief of staff at the time, a man called Sam White, may know a thing or two about this sorry saga.
He was previously a boss at Aviva, where it turns out Haigh was sacked after her conviction.
And once again Sue Gray returns to the headlines: what did the famed Whitehall witch hunter know when she allowed Haigh to enter the cabinet?
She was in charge of cabinet appointments, and will know the truth.
While No10 may hope this blows over quickly, they also need to answer this key question; if Haigh had to resign now over this issue, why was she given the job in the first place?
On what basis was it fine to enter the cabinet yet now has to depart?
And that’s before we get on to whether any other ministers around the table are hiding such secrets…