Sheffield Heeley MP, Louise Haigh, is the first politician representing the city to hold a senior position in government since Nick Clegg was Deputy Prime Minister.
As Transport Secretary, Ms Haigh has the task of overseeing the nations railways, bus services and more. It's a big task, but one the Labour peer and former Home Secretary, Lord David Blunkett, thinks she will be able to take on.
Lord Blunkett sat down with The Star's Harry Harrison for The Sheffield Scoop podcast, and you can find the full interview wherever you get your podcasts from September 20.
As Transport Secretary, Ms Haigh has the task of overseeing the nations railways, bus services and more. It's a big task, but one the Labour peer and former Home Secretary, Lord David Blunkett, thinks she will be able to take on.
Lord Blunkett sat down with The Star's Harry Harrison for The Sheffield Scoop podcast, and you can find the full interview wherever you get your podcasts from September 20.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's the first time since, I believe, Nick Clegg, that we've had a Sheffield MP in the Cabinet,
00:06in a senior position in the Cabinet, with Louise Hades, the Transport Secretary.
00:10What do you make of Louise?
00:12Oh, I think she's quietly got on with the job.
00:15You can see that from the increased majority she got in the Healy constituency.
00:21She's quietly got on with the job behind the scenes in
00:24opposition and she's doing it now.
00:26She's got some very, very big challenges in terms of switching funding so that new priorities,
00:35not on rail, on road, on big transformational schemes like Lower Thames Crossing.
00:41These are multi-billion pound projects and her task is both to negotiate with the
00:48Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, about what stays, what goes, what's switched,
00:53and to have an eye to the growth agenda, the productivity agenda, the north and east-west
01:02northern links and the gross under-investment in the north, whilst recognising that there's
01:09also a north-south link as well. So these are very, very big challenges and I know she'll be up for it.