Wes Streeting ‘Royally f***ed’ his bid to oust Keir Starmer | Politics | News
Streeting is believed to be hoping to replace Starmer as Prime Minister (Image: Getty)
It has been claimed that Wes Streeting “royally quashed” his bid to replace Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. Streeting resigned as Health Minister today, claiming in a letter to the Prime Minister that he no longer had faith in his ability to lead Labor while breaking his record in Government.
Speculation had been mounting for days that Streeting would step down from his role in the Cabinet in a bid to trigger a leadership contest, but his failure to do the latter led one expert to believe it was a sign that Streeting had misunderstood his approach and did not have the support to do so. He explained his decision to leave News Agents podcastLewis Goodall said: “I think what’s happened here is Wes Streeting making the best of a bad job.
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Mr Streeting criticizes “drift” at top of government (Image: Getty)
“I think he would have rightly concluded that, given the speculation, given the fact that they had allowed the impression that he would resign, if he did not do that and came back with his tail between his legs saying, ‘I will remain in the cabinet, his political reputation would be irreversible.’
Labor ‘conspiring to get rid of PM Wes Streeting’ – before he’s even hired
“It would shrink to the point of non-existence.”
He added: “There is another comment, less friendly, expressed to me by someone in the government.
“Wes didn’t have the numbers; he spent the morning trying to get the Cabinet to take action against Keir, but failed.
“He now thinks the best way to get real numbers in the medium term is to resign, but in fact he has botched it badly.”
In a letter accepting Mr Streeting’s resignation, the Prime Minister said he hoped the pair could “work together to show that the ruling Labor Party can solve the problems our rivals are exploiting”.
The departure of the cabinet big beast comes days after calls for the Prime Minister to resign increased following Labour’s election coup last week.
Andy Burnham announces he will run for parliamentary seat (Image: Getty)
Education Minister Bridget Phillipson suggested Mr Streeting’s resignation meant “a pause for us, a chance to breathe as a party and try to draw a line under all of this”, but said: “I fundamentally disagree with the position he has taken.”
In his resignation letter, Mr Streeting partly blamed the “unprecedented” election results on “the unpopularity of the Government”, adding: “There are many reasons we can point out: from individual mistakes in policy such as the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the ‘strangers island’ talk, all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for.”
Mr Streeting praised Sir Keir’s “many strengths” and his “courage and statesmanship on the world stage”, but continued: “There is a gap where we need vision. Where we need direction we are adrift.”
“This was underlined in your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but often that means other people fall on their swords.
“You must also listen to your colleagues, including those in the background, and a harsh approach to dissenting voices undermines our policy.”
Hours later, leadership rival Andy Burnham said he would seek to stand as a Labor candidate in the by-election after an MP resigned to make way for the Mayor of Greater Manchester to return to Parliament to challenge Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Burnham said he wanted to return to Westminster to “bring to the whole of the UK the same change we brought to Greater Manchester and to make politics work properly for people”.
It comes after Josh Simons, the Labor MP for Makerfield, said he would stand down so Mr Burnham can “initiate the change our country has been crying out for”.
