{"id":18047,"date":"2024-11-29T06:47:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T06:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/transport-secretary-louise-haigh-quits-over-phone-admission\/"},"modified":"2024-11-29T06:47:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T06:47:12","slug":"transport-secretary-louise-haigh-quits-over-phone-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/transport-secretary-louise-haigh-quits-over-phone-admission\/","title":{"rendered":"Transport Secretary Louise Haigh quits over phone admission"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Louise Haigh has resigned as transport secretary after pleading guilty to a criminal offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the prime minister, Haigh said she was \u201ctotally committed to our political project\u201d but that it would be “best served by my supporting you from outside government\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her resignation comes a day after she admitted that she told police she had lost her phone during a mugging on a night out but later found it had not been taken.<\/p>\n

She said it was a “genuine mistake” but had been advised by a lawyer “not to comment” during a police interview. The police then referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She said she pleaded guilty to making a false report to police at a magistrates’ court six months before becoming an MP in the 2015 election, and received a discharge – the “lowest possible outcome”.<\/p>\n

Whitehall sources told the BBC that the transport secretary declared her discharge on appointment to the shadow cabinet<\/a> when the Labour Party was in opposition.<\/p>\n

In her letter to Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, Haigh said that she appreciated “whatever the facts of the matter” that the issue would “inevitably be a distraction”.<\/p>\n

Haigh said that her appointment as the \u201cyoungest ever\u201d female Cabinet member \u201cremains one of the proudest achievements of my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

A discharge is a type of conviction where a court finds the person guilty but does not give them a sentence because the offence is considered very minor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n