Britain’s Starmer names new transport minister hours after embarrassing resignation

LONDON – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed a new transport minister on Nov 29 after the youngest member of his Cabinet quit when it was revealed that she had pleaded guilty a decade ago to an offence in connection with misleading the police.

Just hours after Ms Louise Haigh resigned as transport minister after admitting she had committed a minor criminal offence relating to a mobile phone she wrongly said had been stolen, Mr Starmer appointed Ms Heidi Alexander, who served as the deputy mayor for transport in London between 2018 and 2021.

It was a swift replacement to try to draw a line under the resignation.

But it was yet another blow to the Labour leader, who has seen his Labour Party’s approval ratings plunge over a raft of tax rises that have targeted businesses, farmers and pensioners since it won a July election.

Ms Haigh said in a letter to Mr Starmer that she had told the 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 Mr Starmer’s office early on Nov 29, Ms 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 Ms Haigh had “done the right thing” but asked why Mr Starmer had appointed her when he was apparently aware of her fraud conviction.

“The onus is now on Keir Starmer to explain this obvious failure of judgment to the British public,” a spokesperson for the Conservative Party said in a statement.

Almost immediately after winning power, the Labour government came under fire for limiting fuel payments to the elderly, and for

taking donations for clothing

and hospitality.

Since then, Mr Starmer’s government has angered farmers over changes to inheritance tax rules, and many businesses have cried foul over Labour’s first Budget in which the finance minister raised taxes mainly on companies and the wealthy.

Ms Haigh, who was first elected in 2015 and has held senior posts under both Mr Starmer and left-wing former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said the incident with the phone was a “genuine mistake” from which she “did not make any gain”.

She had been the youngest member of the Cabinet at age 37 and was responsible for government policies, including the rail nationalisation Bill, which became law this week. REUTERS