UK Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh resigned from her post following reports that she pleaded guilty to fraud a decade ago.
Haigh resigned following reports that she had been charged with and pleaded guilty to fraud after claiming that a work cellphone was stolen during a 2013 mugging. She later admitted to mistakenly listing the phone among the stolen items.
After discovering the phone and turning it back on, police questioned her. Haigh pleaded guilty and received a conditional discharge.
“I appreciate that whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government and the policies to which we are both committed,” she said in a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. “I will always be grateful for the support you have shown me, and I take great pride in what we achieved since the election.”
Heidi Alexander was appointed as the Secretary of State for Transport on Friday. Alexander was previously the minister of State at the Ministry of Justice from July 8 until Friday.
She was elected as the member of Parliament for Swindon South in July 2024.
The resignation comes following the passage of a bill to nationalize Great Britain’s railroad network. Great British Railways is the planned state-owned railway company that will manage passenger rail transport in Great Britain.
GBR, to be headquartered in Derby, will take over the current responsibilities of Network Rail, becoming the owner and manager of most railway infrastructure across Great Britain. It does not include Transport for London, Merseytravel in Liverpool, light rail and trams.
This publicly-owned organization will replace the previous privatized rail franchising system, which was in effect from 1996 until its effective abolition in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Great Britain’s railroads were nationalized following the Transport Act 1947.
All train operating companies will be transferred into public ownership as their contracts expire and integrated into GBR, marking the first reunification of passenger services under a single public entity since the privatization of British Rail in the 1990s. However, open-access operators will continue to run services on selected routes.
In September 2024, the Department for Transport established Shadow Great British Railways to begin the preparations for GBR before its official establishment in Parliament.
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