UK transport secretary Louise Haigh admits historic offence over phone claim

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Louise Haigh, the transport secretary, has admitted she pleaded guilty a decade ago to a minor criminal offence relating to a mobile phone she wrongly claimed had been stolen. 

Haigh, who is on the left of the Labour party, said in a statement that she had told police she lost the device during a “terrifying” mugging on a night out in 2013 — only to discover later that it had not been taken after all. 

“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,” she said. 

Some time later — after being issued with a new work phone — she discovered that the original had not been taken. “The original work device being switched on triggered police attention and I was asked to come in for questioning.”

The 37-year-old MP for Sheffield Heeley said that the inaccurate statement had been a “genuine mistake”. 

She said she had been advised by a lawyer not to comment during an interview with police, who then referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service. “I regret following that [legal] advice,” she said.

Haigh said she pleaded guilty on her solicitor’s advice when she appeared before magistrates despite it having been a “genuine mistake from which I did not make any gain”.

The magistrates accepted her arguments and gave her a discharge, which was the “lowest possible outcome”, her statement said.

She did not confirm what the actual charge was that she had faced in court.

An ally of Haigh dismissed as “absolute nonsense” a report on Sky News that two sources claimed she had made the police report to gain a newer handset from her employers, insurance group Aviva. 

The incident occurred only six months before she was first elected to parliament in the 2015 election. 

It is understood that Haigh told Sir Keir Starmer, then leader of the opposition, about the incident when she was first appointed to the shadow cabinet in 2020 as Northern Ireland spokesperson. 

Before being elected — and at the time of her offence — Haigh worked as a public policy manager for Aviva. She also volunteered as a special constable in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary from 2009 to 2011. 

As transport secretary she is responsible for everything from High Speed 2 rail and the nationalisation of the railway system to policy on electric vehicles. 

“These are extremely concerning revelations about the person responsible for managing £30bn of taxpayers’ money,” said Nigel Huddleston, chair of the Conservative party.

“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.”