Heidi Alexander appointed new transport secretary

The MP who oversaw the implementation of London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) has been appointed as the new transport secretary.

Heidi Alexander has replaced former transport secretary Louise Haigh, who resigned last Friday after admitting she pleaded guilty to a fraud offence.

Alexander served as deputy mayor for transport under Sadiq Khan between 2018 and 2021, overseeing the introduction of ULEZ, the management of Transport for London through the covid pandemic and the troubled last years of the Crossrail project.

First elected as MP for Lewisham East in 2010, she left to join City Hall in 2018 and was re-elected to Parliament as MP for Swindon South in this year’s general election.

Since July, she had been serving as minister of state for courts and legal services in the Ministry of Justice.

Haigh’s resignation came after it emerged she had pleaded guilty to making a false report to the police following a mugging.

The MP had told police she had lost her phone during the mugging but later discovered it in her home, later triggering the attention of the police when the device was switched on.

She said her guilty plea had been made on the advice of her solicitor, a decision which Haigh said she regretted as the false report had been a “genuine mistake”.

Haigh, who was the youngest woman ever appointed to a Cabinet when she was handed the transport brief in July, had unveiled her vision for the UK’s public transport only the day before her resignation.

She said the new Integrated National Transport Strategy would set out a “people first approach” to getting people around the country and empower local leaders.

The government plans to recruit a new Integrated Transport Commissioner to help deliver its plans.