PM refuses to give further details of Haigh resignation

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to give more information about why Louise Haigh resigned as transport secretary last week.

Haigh stepped down after it emerged she had pleaded guilty to a fraud offence a decade ago, a conviction she reportedly told Sir Keir about in 2020, when he appointed her to his shadow cabinet.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch asked why the prime minister had appointed a "convicted fraudster" as his transport secretary.

Sir Keir said Haigh had been right to resign "when new information came to light".

But, when asked by Badenoch for details about the new information, he replied: "I'm not going to disclose private information."

He added that Haigh's swift resignation was a "marked contrast" to the behaviour of the previous Conservative government and accused Badenoch of being "obsessed with the Westminster issues".

Badenoch said the prime minister was "obfuscating" and that he owed MPs "an explanation".

"The country needs conviction politicians not politicians with convictions," she said.

Hitting back, Sir Keir said two of Badenoch's predecessors had "convictions", a reference to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, who both received fixed penalty notices for breaking Covid rules.

Fixed penalty notices are not classed as criminal convictions, provided the fine is paid on time.

Later, responding to Badenoch's questions, a Labour source said: “If the Conservatives want to have a row about the extent of their criminality in office, that's fine by us.

“The fact is that her two predecessors were found guilty of breaking the law, partying in Downing Street while telling everyone else to follow the rules, something which the leader of the opposition described just a few weeks ago as ‘overblown’. Maybe she'll want to retract that statement.”