Gloria De Piero on Lou Haigh: ‘This feisty reformer can teach us all something’

The Rail Public Ownership Bill received royal assent on Thursday. If that was my friend Louise Haigh’s only achievement, it would make her one of the most consequential transport secretaries of modern times.

But in just four and a half months, she also ended the long-running industrial disputes that crippled the country’s rail network; oversaw a period of record rail revenues; secured £1bn for local bus services and a further £1.6n to repair potholes.

She fought for areas across the country to be given powers over buses that were previously only enjoyed by London, arguing that what is good enough for the capital is good enough for Sheffield, Wigan, Manchester and Birmingham.

After the BBC’s Frank Gardner was forced to crawl along the aisle of a plane, Louise set up a task force to ensure people with disabilities will never have to undergo such indignities again.

READ MORE: Who is the new Transport Secretary?

She championed legislation that will help to decarbonise fuel, set up an FCA inquiry into interest charges on car insurance and, using her powers of secretary of state, called in planning decisions made by the previous government in order to allow hundreds of new homes to be built.

If that wasn’t enough, she overhauled the way transport investment decisions are made in order to benefit deprived areas around the country.

‘Her department was actually delivering’

As one of my former colleagues in the lobby remarked to me this morning, after expressing his sadness at her resignation: “her department was actually delivering”.

Louise and I became unlikely friends soon after her election in 2015. People in the Labour Party might wonder what I, a Blairite, have in common with someone on the soft left of the Party like Lou.

Policy differences in the Labour Party can often be overstated, but it is also refreshing to learn that sharing a few bottles of chardonnay can dilute tribal loyalties. Lou is a wonderful friend for many reasons, but her intellect is as arresting as her trademark shock of red hair.

I would give my right arm to be able to do just one of the six interviews she did on the Sunday’s broadcast round 12 days ago – each one flawless.

Aged just 37, she is already a brilliant communicator and an accomplished media performer – skills that will serve her well in years to come. At the age that she is now, I was first elected to Parliament, after a career in broadcasting, and I was still working out where the toilets were in the House of Commons.

The wheels keep on turning in politics and my friend Heidi Alexander will do a fantastic job in the role Lou has just vacated.

But as Keir Starmer acknowledged in his letter this morning, he knows she still has ‘a huge contribution to make in the future’.

The Prime Minister was right to use the word “‘huge”. We all have a lot more to learn from the feisty redhead who is as warm in private as she is formidable in public.

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