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UK transport secretary Louise Haigh has resigned after admitting on Thursday that she had pleaded guilty to a criminal offence over a missing mobile phone.
“Whatever the facts of the matter, this issue will inevitably be a distraction from delivering on the work of this government,” Haigh said in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer.
“I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will be best served by my supporting you from outside Government,” she said in the letter.
Haigh said she pleaded guilty a decade ago to a minor criminal offence relating to a mobile phone she wrongly claimed had been stolen.
Haigh, who is on the left of the Labour party, said in a statement on Thursday that she had told police she lost the device during a “terrifying” mugging on a night out in 2013 — only to discover later that it had not been taken after all.
This is a developing story
