Fuming Diane Abbott claims Louise Haigh was ‘thrown beneath the bus’ in BBC interview

A Cabinet minister has insisted the situation over Louise Haigh was “dealt with very quickly” amid accusations she was thrown “under the bus”.

Pat McFadden said her quick resignation as Transport Secretary was a “big contrast” to life under the Tories as the row has not “dragged on for weeks”. He rejected claims that the Government looked “chaotic” after rows about freebies and tensions within No10 overshadowed its first months in power.

But veteran MP Diane Abbott criticised Keir Starmer’s judgement and accused him of throwing Ms Haigh “under the bus”. She said the PM doesn’t seem to understand his ruthlessness “makes him look bad”.

Ms Haigh quit after it emerged last week she was convicted of fraud by false representation in 2014. It is understood that she informed Mr Starmer about the conviction when she joined the Shadow Cabinet in 2020 and he was supportive at the time.

But on Friday No10 said the PM withdrew his support after “further information” came to light. Downing Street has refused to say what the new information is.

Ms Abbott, who is the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said: “[Mr Starmer] knew that she had this problem with her claim for her mobile phone. He knew it from the beginning, and now to throw her under the bus like this, I don’t get it.

“She was one of our more effective Cabinet ministers, and why do this to her? And again, he doesn’t seem to understand, it makes him look bad.”

Mr McFadden said he does not know “who knew what when” in relation to the criminal conviction but insisted it was Ms Haigh’s decision to resign. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said he is “sorry to see” Ms Haigh go, describing her as a “good colleague”, and also said it is “not against the law” for somebody who has had a conviction to serve in Parliament.

He rejected a characterisation that the PM was a “hypocrite” for appointing Ms Haigh to his frontbench after previously saying you “cannot be a lawmaker and a law breaker”. Asked if the Labour government looked “chaotic”, Mr McFadden said: “I don’t accept that for a minute.

“If you take this Louise Haigh situation, the story came to light, was dealt with very quickly. Louise has decided to resign by the end of the day. This isn’t something that dragged on for weeks.”

Ms Haigh was convicted of fraud after she wrongly told police her work phone had been snatched in a traumatic mugging in London in 2013. She said she gave officers a list of what had been stolen during the incident, which took place before she became an MP when she was 24-years-old. It included a phone issued by her then employer, the insurance giant Aviva.

But she later found the work phone in a drawer in her house and switched it on, which alerted the police who called her in for questioning. Ms Haigh was given a conditional discharge by magistrates, which she said was the “lowest possible outcome. It is now spent, meaning it has been removed from her record.

Former justice minister Heidi Alexander has replaced Ms Haigh as Transport Secretary.