Decisions over Louise Haigh’s future were “dealt with very quickly”and marked a “big contrast” to how issues were handled under Conservative governments, a cabinet minister has said.
Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, refused to accept suggestions that the transport secretary’s resignation and the controversy over freebies made the Labour government look “chaotic” because it was not “something that dragged on for weeks”.
His comments come after Sky News reported claims that officers investigating Haigh’s phone believed a photo she gave them of the handset had been taken after the alleged theft.
While McFadden described Haigh as “a good colleague” and said he was “sorry to see that she’s gone”, he added that he did not know “who knew what when” when asked if the prime minister knew the full story of her criminal conviction when Haigh was appointed to the cabinet.
Speaking to Sky News, McFadden said: “If you take this Louise Haigh situation, the story came to light, was dealt with very quickly. Louise has decided to resign by the end of the day.
“This isn’t something that dragged on for weeks. It isn’t something where … endless stories about it before action was taken, and within 24 hours, we have a new transport secretary.”
Haigh quit the cabinet on Friday morning with a letter to Starmer saying that “whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering the work of this government”. She was replaced by the MP Heidi Alexander.
In a separate statement, Haigh said that while she was working for the insurance company Aviva in her mid-20s, she was mugged while on a night out. She gave police a list of items missing from her handbag, including her work mobile phone, which she thought had been stolen.
Haigh was issued with a new phone but when she subsequently found her old work phone and turned it on, the police called her in for questioning.
On Sunday, the senior Labour MP Diane Abbott told the BBC the prime minister “does not seem to understand” that allowing Haigh to resign “made him look bad”, claiming “he [Starmer] knew it [of her convictions] from the beginning”.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson refused to confirm on Friday whether Starmer knew about the conviction at any point; however, a number of sources told the Guardian Haigh had told the prime minister about the conviction when she became shadow Northern Ireland secretary in 2020.
The sources also said Haigh had not declared the 2014 conviction for wrongly reporting a mobile phone as stolen, because she was asked only about unspent offences. She had pleaded guilty to fraud by misrepresentation and received a conditional discharge.
When asked if the main issue was how quickly the issue was dealt with, McFadden said: “I think it partly is, because you know people will do things wrong and these things will come to light and how you deal with them and how you respond is part of how this works (…) there’s a big contrast there.”
The cabinet minister rejected suggestions that Starmer was a “hypocrite”, when it was put to him that in opposition Starmer said you “cannot be a lawmaker and a lawbreaker”, yet he still appointed Haigh to his frontbench.
“I think he’s appointed a good cabinet. It’s a more united cabinet than I’ve seen in many years, and we’re working together on this plan for change that we’re going to publish this week which will set out our priorities,” McFadden said.
