The shock resignation of the former Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, has been superseded by the rapid appointment of Heidi Alexander as her replacement. The cabinet ministry was vacant for less than five hours, following Haigh’s resignation at six o’clock this morning (29 November). A week used to be a long time in politics. It seems now that a morning is almost an eternity.
The emergence of a past and relatively minor criminal conviction was given as the reason for the rapid departure of Louise Haigh, the former Transport Secretary. That story angle has some way to run. However, the Prime Minister has wasted no time in appointing a replacement. The new minister, now in charge of the Department for Transport and already installed at 55 Horseferry Road, is Heidi Alexander – the sitting member of parliament for the Swindon South constituency, which she won for the Labour Party at the July General Election.
Commitment to town and country
Heidi Alexander comes to the Department for Transport with a selection of all the right credentials. Privately, it is believed that she was considered for the post when Keir Starmer was assembling his cabinet in the morning after the 4 July election, which saw the socialist Labour Party retake office after fourteen years of right-wing Conservative government.
The new transport secretary is already a junior minister in the Justice Department, but it could be argued that transport is a greater part of her political career. She won a seat for the Labour Party in the July General Election for the constituency of Swindon South. The town, 80 miles (130 km) west of London, is most renowned for its association with the railway. Swindon grew massively around the now repurposed Great Western Railway Works, established in the town by the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Mixed metaphors but straight talking required
More currently, Heidi Alexander had an interregnum from parliamentary politics during the last decade. She worked for over three years as London’s deputy mayor for transport – alongside the elected (Labour) mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. She was also deputy head of Transport for London and was in post for the opening of the Elizabeth Line – which has become the busiest passenger railway in the UK.
Her portfolio is now vastly broadened. The Transport Secretary will be expected to enter into the new office with all the vigour she has already promised for her constituents. “This is the moment we press the reset button for the country,” she said at her election in Swindon. “To get our economy firing on all cylinders. To restore honesty, decency and integrity to politics.”
Careful consideration required
Her choice of metaphors may well be cast up to her immediately. Many transport policies which she will pick up are aimed at decarbonising the transport network – eliminating cylinders and replacing them with fuel cells. She will also have public transport interests lobbying her across a range of issues, from rising bus fares to abandoned rail developments. She will also find the rail freight industry knocking on her door, almost as quickly as she has been appointed.
The previous Transport Secretary had made a vigorous point of courting the passenger sector and was behind very public initiatives, including confirmation of bringing the HS2 high-speed rail project into central London (at Euston). Ms Alexander will, however, have immediate opportunities to rebuild relations with the freight sector. Her predecessor had struggled with the delicate balances in that sphere – most notably when her comments regarding P&O Ferries came to the attention of DP World, the owners of that shipping line – and a company behind several projects centric to rail freight – including the modal shift grant at Southampton.
Heidi Alexander would do well to take more than the brief pause shown by her Prime Minister and consider at length the intricacies of the transport portfolio. The office is often regarded in abstraction. In reality, it is intertwined with all the major departments of government. She will find that the network concept is not confined to the railways. Tugging on one thread always carries the danger of unravelling the entire transport tapestry.