British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed a new transport minister on Friday after Louise Haigh quit when it was revealed she pled guilty a decade ago to an offence in connection with misleading the police.
Reports indicate that the youngest member of cabinet resigned as transport minister after admitting that she had a minor criminal offence relating to a mobile phone she wrongly said had been stolen.
Starmer appointed Heidi Alexander, who served as the deputy mayor for transport in London between 2018 and 2021.
Haigh said in a letter to Starmer that she had told police she had lost a mobile phone during a “terrifying” mugging on a night out in 2013, only to discover later that the phone was still at her home.
In her resignation letter shared by Starmer’s office early on Friday, Haigh said she was standing down as the issue “will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government and the policies to which we are committed”.
The opposition Conservative Party said Haigh had “done the right thing” but asked why Starmer had appointed her when she said he was aware of her fraud conviction.
Source: Reuters
