U.K. Transport Secretary Louise Haigh quits over decade-old cellphone fraud case

British Transport Secretary Louise Haigh resigned on Friday over a decade-old fraud conviction for claiming her cellphone had been stolen. In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ms. Haigh said “I remain totally committed to our political project, but I now believe it will be best served by my supporting you from outside government. The resignation came hours after Sky News and The Times of London newspaper reported that Ms. Haigh had been charged with fraud after she reported that a work cellphone had been stolen after she was mugged in 2013. The magistrates accepted all of these arguments and gave me the lowest possible outcome available.” Ms. Haigh has represented a district in Sheffield, northern England, in Parliament since 2015 and was named to the key transport post after Mr. Starmer's centre-left Labour party was elected in July.