Cabinet minister defends under fire Sheffield MP

Louise Haigh quit as Transport Secretary on Friday after details came out about an historic conviction for lying to the police – she calls a “mistake”

A Cabinet minister stated that the incident involving Louise Haigh was “dealt with very quickly,” citing a “big contrast” to how things had handled under previous governments.

The Sheffield Heeley MP resigned as Transport Secretary on Friday after it was revealed that she had a conviction for lying to police over a stolen mobile phone before to running for parliament.

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “It is not against the law for someone who has had a previous conviction – a conviction that has expired, as far as I understand – to serve in Parliament.”

“The story broke and was dealt with immediately. Louise has chosen to quit at the end of today.

“This was not something that carried on for weeks. It’s not like there were numerous headlines about it before action was taken, and within 24 hours, we had a new Transport Secretary.

When asked if this meant the issue was not whether anyone had done anything wrong but how quickly it was dealt with, Mr McFadden replied: “I think it partly is, because you know people will do things wrong and these things will come to light, and how you deal with them and how you respond is part of how this works (…) there’s a big contrast there.”

When asked whether developments over the last three months, such as Ms Haigh’s retirement and the scandal over Taylor Swift tickets, had made the Government look “chaotic”, Pat McFadden responded, “I don’t accept that for a minute.”

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