Wes Streeting resigns from government and calls for leadership contest
Wes Streeting has resigned from the government after “losing confidence” in Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
The health secretary posted a letter on X where he refers to last week’s local election results as “unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat and the consequences of that failure”.
He added there is “no doubt that the unpopularity of this government was a major and common factor” in the losses last week.
“We need vision, we have a vacumn,” he added before calling for Starmer to “listen to colleagues”.
“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election,” he said in the letter and called for a “broad” process to decide the next leader.
The letter addressed to Starmer did not feature any specific mention of a separate leadership bid.
He would now need to write to Labour’s general secretary and have the support of at least 81 MPs to launch a contest.
Reports have suggested that Streeting will not trigger a leadership bid.
His letter suggested he preferred a scenario where a wider selection of candidates could put themselves forward although it has suggested that the Labour MP for Ilford North does not have the necessary backing of 81 MPs to be able to challenger the Prime Minister.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Streeting said: “Labour MPs and Labour unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism.
“It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope that you will facilitate this.”
Streeting expected to lauch bid
His support for allowing “the best possible field of candidates” to stand for leadership could open the door for Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to launch his own bid.
But Burnham first needs one Labour MP to resign, thereby triggering a by-election and allowing him to stand as a candidate.
Rumours are swirling on which potential leadership contenders have broad support across the Labour backbenches.
Early on Thursday morning, it was revealed that former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner had formally settled her tax affairs that had led to her resignation from the Cabinet.
She did not rule out directly challenging Starmer for the leadership when asked about the matter in interviews with ITV News and The Guardian.
“I’ve made it clear that I wasn’t going to trigger the prime minister – and that I want to see change,” Rayner said.
She also said: “Whatever role I can play, I will keep pushing and pushing hard because I want the people out there at the moment who are really struggling … to know that I’m putting all my energy into fighting for them.”
