Heidi Alexander named new transport secretary after Louise Haigh’s resignation over mobile phone guilty plea

Heidi Alexander has been appointed the new transport secretary after Louise Haigh stepped down over a criminal conviction.

The Swindon South MP had been serving as a justice minister until her promotion today, and worked as Sadiq Khan’s deputy transport mayor between 2018-2021.

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Ms Haigh resigned after Sky News revealed she pleaded guilty to an offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.

In a letter to the prime minister, she described the incident as a “mistake” but said that “whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government”.

Ms Haigh claims she was “mugged on a night out” and believed her phone had been stolen, but discovered “some time later” this was not the case.

She called the incident a “genuine mistake from which I did not make any gain”.

The Tories have said it raises questions about what exactly Sir Keir knew when he gave her a government position.

The prime minister’s official spokesman refused to say whether he was aware of the conviction when appointing her to cabinet, but that the resignation came after new information emerged.

Ms Haigh suggested Sir Keir had some prior knowledge of the event, saying in her resignation letter: “As you know, in 2013 I was mugged in London. As a 24-year-old woman, the experience was terrifying. In the immediate aftermath, I reported the incident to the police.

“I gave the police a list of my possessions that I believed had been stolen, including my work phone.

“Some time later, I discovered that the handset in question was still in my house.

“I should have immediately informed my employer and not doing so straight away was a mistake.”

In response, the prime minister thanked Ms Haigh for “all you have done to deliver this government’s ambitious transport agenda” and said: “I know you still have a huge contribution to make in the future.”

The incident comes less than five months after Labour’s landslide election victory.

During the campaign, Sir Keir vowed to “clean up politics” and previously said lawmakers shouldn’t be lawbreakers – in reference to the Boris Johnson partygate scandal.

Ms Alexander has had a long career in politics, starting off as a councillor before serving as the MP for Lewisham East between 2010-2018.

She served as the shadow health secretary under Jeremy Corbyn between 2015-2016, during the junior doctors’ contract strikes.

Ms Alexander quit the position in protest at what she called his “dysfunctional cabinet”, and left parliament in 2018 to take up the transport job in London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s team.

She was elected to represent Swindon South at the July General Election, and was quickly offered a position as a minister in the justice department.

Her promotion means Sir Keir will now need to fill that role.