After graduating, Haigh worked for the local council youth service from 2006 to 2008. She then began working in Parliament, where she was the co-ordinator of the all party parliamentary group on international corporate responsibility.[2] During this time, she was also a Unite shop steward and volunteered as a special constable in the Metropolitan Special Constabulary from 2009 to 2011.[5]
From 2012 until her election in 2015, Haigh worked for insurer Aviva as public policy manager, responsible for corporate governance and responsible investment policy.[5][6][7]
In September 2015, Haigh was appointed Shadow Minister for Civil Service and Digital Reform.[11][12] The role, newly expanded under Jeremy Corbyn,[13] covered the Government's digital strategy, the Freedom of Information Act, data security and privacy.[14] In this role, Haigh criticised a 2016 reshuffle of Permanent Secretaries which saw two fewer women as departmental heads.[15] She opposed the closure of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills office in Sheffield city centre, saying the decision demonstrated "contempt" for the city.[16]
Haigh was declared the "most hard-working" new MP in February 2016 after a study of the activity of MPs elected in 2015.[17][18][19]
In September 2016, Haigh was instrumental in revealing that hundreds of women had their tax credits stopped in error by US company Concentrix.[20] The revelation led to an announcement that their HMRC contract would not be renewed.[21]
Panic alarms were installed in Haigh's office and home by South Yorkshire Police in December 2016 after she received death threats for calling for a debate on the banning of Britain First, the far-right group. South Yorkshire Police provided her with uniformed and undercover protection as she attended to her constituency activities.[22]
On 10 October 2016, she was made Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy.[23] Haigh served in this role during the passage of the Digital Economy Act (2017) and introduced a number of amendments, including an obligation for television broadcasters to include subtitles and closed captioning in on-demand content online which was adopted by a subsequent Government amendment.[24] She has repeatedly raised concerns about child protection online, including calling for social media companies to recognise "that alongside their new-found power, they have responsibilities" in dealing with harmful and illegal content.[25]
At the snap 2017 general election, Haigh was re-elected with an increased vote share of 60% and an increased majority of 13,828.[26]
On 3 July 2017, she was made Shadow Policing Minister.[27] Haigh has called for greater protection for police officers involved in vehicle pursuits, saying the current rules are "hampering the ability of the police to apprehend very serious offenders".[28] In this role she has raised the issue of stress and mental health of officers, citing a 77% rise in officer leave due to mental health problems between 2014 and 2018.[29] She has called for a "public health approach" to reducing violent crime[30] and blamed the rise in crime on government spending cuts to both police and other public services.[31]
MP portrait, 2019
Haigh was a member of a number of all-party parliamentary groups (APPGs), including the APPGs on corporate governance, refugees, Colombia and looked-after children. In July 2017 she was elected vice chair of the APPG on state pension inequality and in February 2019 became a joint chair of the APPG on social care.[32][33]
In October 2018, Haigh stated her concern that forcing police to find more to pay for police pensions out of their general budget leaves less money for the police to protect the public. She stated, "Forcing the police at the last minute to bear the huge cost of pension changes demonstrates the utter failure of ministers to grasp the crisis in policing caused by their cuts. They have played fast and loose with public safety and the police are right to step up and take action".[34] She also believes it is wrong that the police are forced to deal with mental health crises, at the root of which lies the chronic underfunding of the NHS, saying: “The government’s underfunding of mental health services is a national scandal and passing the buck to our overstretched police officers is exacerbating the crisis in policing. It is frankly shocking that the police are often the only people who someone experiencing a mental health crisis can turn to. Nearly a decade of brutal austerity has torn at the fabric of our society and the most vulnerable are being failed”.[35]
In April 2019 Haigh introduced a private member's bill that would remove the automatic parental rights of fathers of children conceived through rape. The bill would also establish an inquiry into the family court's handling of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls.[36] This Bill was borne out of Haigh's work with Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of child sexual exploitation, to increase protections for victims of abuse.[37]
At the 2019 general election, Haigh was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 50.3% and a decreased majority of 8,520.[38]
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary (2020–2021)
On 6 April 2020, Haigh replaced Tony Lloyd as the interim Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the Starmer shadow cabinet, following Lloyd's hospitalisation as a result of COVID-19.[39] On 28 April 2020, Lloyd resigned as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary to focus on recovery, and Haigh replaced him permanently.[40] She is the second woman after Mo Mowlam to serve as the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Haigh made her first visit to Northern Ireland as Shadow Secretary of State in August 2020.[41] After Brexit she was in charge of Northern Ireland policy in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol. She said “We’re a unionist party in the Labour Party, but if there is a border poll we should remain neutral. I think that’s an important principle." Haigh was criticised for undermining the views of Keir Starmer who said he would side with unionists in any poll.[42]
While promoting the government's new Employment Rights Bill in a television interview on 9 October, Haigh urged viewers to join her in boycotting P&O Ferries after the firm had sacked hundreds of its workers with immediate notice two years prior.[51] Speaking to ITV News, she called P&O "a rogue operator" and said it needed "cracking down on".[52] Haigh was publicly rebuked by Starmer, who stipulated that her view was "not the view of the government".[53] The incident came only days before a government-led international investment summit, that P&O's parent company, DP World, attended despite the controversy.[54]
Resignation
On 28 November 2024, it emerged that Haigh had pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation relating to misleading police in 2014.[55] In a statement, Haigh said that she had been mugged on a night out in 2013 whilst working as a public policy manager for the insurer Aviva. She said that she had given the police a list of items that she thought were missing from her handbag, which wrongly included her mobile work phone supplied by Aviva.[56] She was issued with a new phone by her employer, but Haigh said she later discovered her old phone in a drawer which she switched on.[57] Haigh said that this signal was picked up on by Aviva and they alerted it to the police, who called in Haigh for police questioning to make a statement.[58] During the interview with the police, Haigh said that her solicitor had advised her "not to comment", and she did not respond to questions about the use of the phone when approached for comment.[59][60] A case file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service and she was charged with fraud by false representation. Six months before she was elected as an MP at the 2015 general election in November 2014, Haigh pleaded guilty when she appeared at the Camberwell Green magistrates' court, and received a conditional discharge.[61]
Starmer spoke to Haigh on the night of 28 November and said that it would be better for her and the government if she stood down; Haigh agreed and subsequently resigned as Transport Secretary that night.[61] The Prime Minister's spokesperson said in a briefing with reporters on 29 November that Starmer accepted Haigh's resignation following "further information emerging".[62] In a letter to Starmer, Haigh stated that whilst she was "totally committed to our political project," she believed it would be best served supporting him from "outside government".[63][64] Haigh also said that the issue would "inevitably be a distraction" from delivering on the work and policies of the government, but said she took "pride" in what they had done.[60] In response, Starmer said that Haigh had made "huge strides" as Transport Secretary, and that she still had a "huge contribution to make in the future".[65] She was succeeded as Transport Secretary by Heidi Alexander.[66]
Haigh has previously called for compulsory online education alongside sex and relationships education in schools, citing an 800% increase in children contacting the NSPCC about online abuse.[74]
^Christopher Jasper, "£1bn blow to Starmer’s push for growth: P&O Ferries owner shelves port expansion after Transport Secretary brands firm a ‘rogue operator’", The Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2024, archived at archive.ph
.svg)
