Transport Secretary Louise Haigh resigns after Sky News revealed mobile phone guilty plea

Comments

• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In 2013, Haigh was 24-years-old and working as a public policy manager for the insurance company Aviva.

  Following reports by Sky and The Times on Thursday, Haigh issued a statement, explaining she made a police report after a “terrifying” mugging in London.

  She said she reported the phone as one of a number of items she believed had been stolen, and was issued with a new work phone.

  Some time later, she discovered the handset was still in her house, and she switched it on, which “triggered police attention” and she was called in for questioning.

  “My solicitor advised me not to comment during that interview and I regret following that advice,” she said, and the matter was sent to magistrates.

  Haigh 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”.

  I’m surprised she’s resigning over something so minor tbh.

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  • Mex@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    yeah I expect she was pushed

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  • mannycalavera@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It will be this revelation plus the fact that she bad mouthed a major investor in the UK whilst in opposition. When you’re trying to encourage businesses to grow in the UK and they call out that one of your cabinet ministers is openly against you that’s not great for the government.

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    • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Given the actions of said investor.

      When you’re trying to encourage businesses to grow in the UK

      It is sorta invalid when the company is working to fire UK workers and rehire foreign ones with fewer rights and lower costs.

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• fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I must be missing something. What’s actually the crime or scandal here?

  Haigh: “Help, I’ve been mugged”
  Police: “What did they take?”
  Haigh: “I can’t remember exactly what was in the bag, I guess my money, my bank cards, my keys, my work phone”
  Police: “Ok”
  Haigh: “Oh, wait a minute, my work phone was at home, they only threatened me, assaulted me and took the other stuff I mentioned”
  Police: “Your list was wrong? Ha! Then it is YOU who is the criminal, not them!”
  Government, ten years later: “Also, you’re not allowed to fix our railways or have a job”
  Tories: “Unlike all our politicians who merely do things like millions of £s of fraud, destroying the economy and endangering the lives of millions of people for their own personal profit - this horrific excuse for a human once put something in a list and then realised it shouldn’t have been on the list, so a decade later, it’s only correct that they shouldn’t be allowed to have a job”

  I assume I’ve missed something key here.

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  • Mex@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think the issue was she didn’t update the police when she found the phone at home.

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    • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s what they’re saying… but… so what? Did the police waste hours and millions hunting for a lost mobile phone? Did she receive an ill-gotten temporary replacement mobile phone from work for a few weeks? I’m still struggling to see the scandal or crime.

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• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Meanwhile in America, it’s practically a requirement of office to be a convicted felon.

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• Mex@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Louise Haigh quits as transport secretary over phone offence www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxy1kp73y9o

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