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What verb does the phase conflict of interest collocate the best with: be or have? For example:

The polician has to resign because he is in a conflict of interest.

The polician has to resign because he has a conflict of interest.

If neither sounds good there, then what would you say?

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    The "container" metaphoric usage (in) doesn't work very well with a conflict of interest. But to be honest, the "ownership" metaphor (have) isn't much better. I'd suggest simply presenting the relevant noun phrase and leaving it to the audience / reader to figure out the blindingly obvious connection for themselves: The politician has to resign because of a conflict of interest.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 15:13

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‘Has’ would be more easily understood as something personal to the politician. ‘Is in’ might make one wonder if they were involved in something that involved more people than just them, perhaps with the interest not actually belonging to them.

It would be more commonly said as:

had to resign due to a conflict of interest.

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