Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has resigned a day after she admitted pleading guilty to a criminal offence over a work mobile phone.
In a letter to the prime minister, Haigh said she was “totally committed to our political project” but said she believed it would be “best served by my supporting you from outside government”.
Her resignation comes a day after she admitted in a statement that she told police she had lost her phone during a mugging on a night out in 2013 but later found it had not been taken.
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.
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”.
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”.
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