Secret MI5 file on former minister Louise Haigh’s phone fraud over her proximity to an Irish nationalist MP

MI5 has kept a file on former minister Louise Haigh due to concerns over her relationship with a nationalist politician, security sources told the Mail on Sunday.

These concerns – which stem from Ms Haigh receiving low-level information in her role as Labor spokesperson in Northern Ireland – are believed to have played a role in her downfall last month following a historic fraud case involving the loss of a cell phone.

Sources said MI5 had raised conflict of interest questions over his close relationship with the SDLP’s Colum Eastwood.

Mr Eastwood resigned as party leader in October but remains MP for Foyle.

There is no indication that Ms Haigh shared sensitive information with Mr Eastwood or that they behaved inappropriately in any way, but sources said the briefing prompted Sir Keir Starmer to transfer Ms Haigh to the Department of Transportation in 2021.

Ms Haigh was convicted of fraud after saying she was attacked on a “terrifying” night out in 2013 and giving police a list of items missing from her handbag.

She included her work cell phone in this list, but discovered “some time later” that it had not been stolen. Ms Haigh pleaded guilty to an offense relating to deception of the police.

Although she declared her condemnation to Sir Keir in 2020 when he appointed her to the Northern Ireland post, the Prime Minister and his advisers were reluctant to spend political capital defending her after the media had knowledge of the conviction this year – with MI5. the briefing is at the forefront of their minds.

Ms Haigh agreed to leave the Cabinet during the phone furore because she did not want to become “a distraction”.

In October, she also angered Number 10 by calling Saudi ferry company P&O “rogue operators” after the company sacked 800 British workers.

A source said: “There had been question marks over his judgment since MI5 intervened, and P&O and then the phone saga highlighted them.”

Ms Haigh also lost the protection of her friend Sue Gray, who quit as No 10 chief of staff in October after a bitter power struggle with Sir Keir’s closest adviser Morgan McSweeney.

Ms Gray, whom the Prime Minister appointed to the peerage, is herself steeped in Northern Irish politics.

Shortly before her resignation, the Mail on Sunday raised questions about her links to nationalist politicians, including former IRA member Conor Murphy, who presented Ms Gray as a “friend in court” who could give “access… directly to Downing Street”.

Security sources said Ms Gray had meetings with Mr Murphy, the Sinn Fein economy minister, when she left her senior civil servant post to work for Sir Keir.

Ms Gray’s connections to Irish republicans have fueled intrigue since she was a pub landlord in IRA “bandit country” in the 1980s.

Last night a Number 10 source said: “Louise has decided to resign for the reasons she has outlined. Nothing more, nothing less.