Streeting throws down the gauntlet in Labour’s chaotic battle for No10 | UK | News
Wes Streeting is expected to resign from the government on Thursday, firing the starting gun in Labour’s three-way leadership contest; Sir Keir Starmer’s allies are understood to be preparing for Ed Miliband to throw his hat in the ring shortly.
On Wednesday morning, ahead of the King’s Speech, he met face-to-face for 16 minutes with Health Secretary Sir Keir at No 10; Reports showed that he had privately signaled to his colleagues that Thursday would be the day he would take action.
To trigger a formal leadership challenge, Mr Streeting needs the support of 81 Labor MPs; This is a threshold he is urgently trying to reach.
Will Sir Keir Starmer contest the Labor leadership contest?
Despite the pressure, Sir Keir’s allies insist he has no intention of standing aside. The Prime Minister is said to be planning to stand up to Mr Streeting and his expected rival from the left wing of the party and fight all challengers to stay in Downing Street.
At a bitter Cabinet meeting on Monday, the Prime Minister effectively encouraged his critics by warning that less than the full 81 MP threshold would not unseat him. An attempt to remove him without a formal challenge was rejected outright.
Will Ed Miliband represent the Labor leadership?
Labor sources have told The Telegraph that the party’s soft left wing is likely to nominate the Environment Secretary, given that former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner faces unresolved tax issues while Andy Burnham is not eligible to stand as he is not currently an MP.
The Environment Secretary has repeatedly refused to return to the Labor leadership, telling allies that his experience leading the party from 2010 to 2015 had left him exposed to what he called the “inoculation technique”, meaning he was not willing to employ it again. But although his wife, Justine Thornton, is understood to be against him running for a second term, his allies believe he will have enough MP support to mount a challenge.
What’s going on with Andy Burnham and the Labor leadership?
Mr Burnham’s path to the contest is complicated by his absence from the House of Commons. The timetable for any leadership election will be determined by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) and it is unlikely to be long enough to allow the Mayor of Greater Manchester to return to Westminster via a by-election.
Those around Mr Burnham have been pressing the NEC to allow a longer process, hoping it would give him time to return to the Commons, but one of the allies admitted on Wednesday he faced “withdrawing from the race”.
Mr Burnham’s friends have raised the possibility of a surprise deal with Mr Streeting in which he would back the Health Secretary in exchange for a Cabinet position; It’s a theory the Prime Minister’s allies have also discussed, believing Burnham-Streeting could be given a joint sentence to defeat Sir Keir.
According to The Telegraph, two people close to Burnham said she had identified a constituency as a target in the by-election; His visit to London on Tuesday is understood to coincide with a sitting MP allegedly agreeing to stand down to make room for him. But Manchester Rusholme MP Afzal Khan denied on Wednesday night that he was prepared to stand down in favor of Mr Burnham.
What would the Labor leadership contest mean for Britain?
Senior Whitehall figures painted a bleak picture of what a contest would mean, warning it would bring the government to a halt and send shockwaves through bond markets. Currency markets reacted immediately, with sterling weakening against the dollar on Wednesday morning upon learning of Mr Streeting’s intentions. Government borrowing costs fell only slightly from a 28-year high reached the day before.
Members of Mr Streeting’s operation man the phones among Labor MPs, extracting pledges of support while making it clear that early supporters will be free to change their allegiance to a rival once the contest has begun; It’s a tactic previously used by leadership candidates seeking to cross the threshold without any guarantee of long-term support.
