Louise Haigh’s shock resignation as transport secretary has provoked a blame game within Labour that is already proving unedifying.
The speed at which Ms Haigh was dispensed from her cabinet role suggests some within government were only too happy to see her out.
Ms Haigh’s resignation came after she admitted to Sky News that she had pleaded guilty to an offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013.
In a lengthy statement to Sky News, the former cabinet minister said she had been mugged and believed the work phone had been taken in the “terrifying” incident – only to discover that the “missing” device was in fact at home.
Ms Haigh admitted that not disclosing this to her employer at the time, the insurance giant Aviva, was a “mistake” – one that has come back to haunt her and cost her a hard-earned role at the top table.
Had Ms Haigh been an ally of the power brokers in Number 10, this row is arguably one she could have ridden out.
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The fact the conviction was a decade ago and is now spent, and her claim that it was a “genuine mistake” from which she made no personal gain, could surely have been used as mitigating factors to keep a capable and well-liked cabinet minister in post.
Instead, Sir Keir Starmer – whom Ms Haigh claims “knows” about her fraud conviction and the context surrounding it – responded to his colleague’s resignation with a curt three-sentence reply thanking her for her contribution and potentially leaving the door open for a comeback.
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And in the end, the prime minister has prioritised his mantra of “law breakers can’t be law makers” – although critics would say it is too little too late.
There is also confusion as to how much Sir Keir knew about Ms Haigh’s conviction for fraud by misrepresentation.
The initial understanding was that Ms Haigh disclosed the incident in full when she was appointed to the shadow cabinet.
But a briefing between Downing Street representatives and political journalists today threw doubt over that claim, with strong suggestions that Ms Haigh resigned – or was advised to resign – over potential breaches of the ministerial code, which states ministers must act with openness, honesty and integrity.
The prime minister’s deputy spokesman suggested the full facts of the case were not previously known and that new information had come to light that led to her resignation.
However, that “further information” was not clarified – which could prompt a war of words between Ms Haigh and Downing Street further down the line.
The swift promotion of Heidi Alexander – London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s former deputy mayor for transport who resigned from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet – has further sparked suspicions that Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff, had a hand in her downfall.
Mr McSweeney made his name in Labour driving out the hard left – and while Ms Haigh can hardly be put in that category, it is fair to say that she is not of the same ideological persuasion as the key Labour power broker.
Ms Haigh was put on notice when she was accused of jeopardising £1bn in investment by criticising P&O Ferries as a “rogue operator” over its decision to sack 800 members of staff – something that did in fact reflect language used by other Labour MPs while in opposition.
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The intervention – in which she also called for a “boycott” of P&O – earned her a public rebuke from the prime minister, who said her views were not shared by the government.
But perhaps it was more the people around Ms Haigh and her politics that were more an issue than the policies.
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Ms Haigh enjoyed close links to Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s former chief of staff who was sacked amid a wider power struggle with Mr McSweeney, and there have been suggestions that Ms Haigh was not his first pick for transport secretary – that being Ms Alexander.
With Ms Alexander now in post, we are seeing more of the vision Mr McSweeney had for the cabinet but could not enact due to the influence of Ms Gray.
For the remaining soft-left members of the cabinet, Ms Haigh’s departure will no doubt serve as a warning shot.
