Louise Haigh Accuses “Cabal of Men” Around Keir Starmer of Targeted Briefings After Her 2024 Resignation

Former transport secretary Louise Haigh, now a backbench MP for Sheffield Heeley, told BBC journalist Nick Robinson at the Crossed Wires festival in Sheffield that senior allies of Prime Minister Keir Starmer briefed the press “consistently and viciously” against her for weeks after she left the cabinet in 2024. She described the pattern as part of a “cabal of men mistreating women,” naming Labour colleagues Lisa Nandy, Bridget Phillipson, Angela Rayner and former chief of staff Sue Gray as similarly targeted. Haigh argued that the repeated reference to “additional information” by Starmer and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was never clarified and was intended to damage her reputation.

Louise Haigh accuses Starmer allies of briefings against herThe Guardian

Haigh’s departure followed the 2013 conviction in which she pleaded guilty to fraudulently reporting a lost mobile phone as stolen. She maintains she disclosed the conviction to Starmer years before being removed from the cabinet. The undisclosed “additional information” cited by Starmer’s team, she says, became the pretext for her sacking and the subsequent media campaign.

The Guardian

While campaigning for Andy Burnham’s anticipated premiership, Haigh argued against splitting the Treasury in the current parliament, warning it would “drag everything down.” Instead, she called for a “proper beefed-up economic unit in Number 10” that both the prime minister and the chancellor could access for coordinated economic advice.

The Guardian

Downing Street was contacted for comment on Haigh’s accusations; no response was provided at the time of reporting.

Louise Haigh accuses Starmer allies of briefings against her

• “Both Morgan [McSweeney] and [Starmer] kept saying ‘well, additional information has emerged’, but at no point would any of them tell me what that additional information was.” — Louise Haigh

The Guardian

• “To pretend that I hadn’t told him and to brief so consistently and so viciously for quite a number of weeks after that was a deliberate attempt to knock my character down.” — Louise Haigh

The Guardian

• “The idea that there wasn’t a cabal of men that were deliberately mistreating women around the government is just fanciful.” — Louise Haigh

The Guardian

• “There needs to be a proper beefed up economic unit in Number 10 that both the prime minister and the chancellor have access to, and that can give the prime minister a full suite of advice when they’re making these huge decisions that affect the country,” — Louise Haigh

The Guardian