Echo Comment on day of drama as Streeting stands down

It has been a day of great drama, with Health Secretary Wes Streeting walking out of the cabinet and saying to Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum.”

But he seems not to have got the necessary number of supporters to stand against Mr Starmer, and so it appears he has sacrificed himself to further the cause of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester. Almost noble, for a politician.

And Mr Burnham now has a way back into Parliament. In the evening, the Manchester MP Josh Simons – who resigned from the government earlier in the year over accusations he had spied on journalists – stood aside, forcing a by-election which Mr Burnham could contest.

But the day’s episode ends on a drum roll and a cliffhanger: will Mr Burnham’s candidature be passed by the Starmer-influenced committee, and, if it is, would he be successful in a by-election where Labour is only defending a 5,000 majority? The British public once voted for Boaty McBoatface – how will they feel about being pawns in a Labour game? And what if Reform finds a high profile candidate to stand against Mr Burnham?  Who will win that showdown?

It is real life drama, and while it may make entertaining watching, Labour is now, just like the Tories, delivering Britain into a long summer of political in-fighting. That summer may end with Prime Minister Burnham who lacks democratic legitimacy, having never stood on the manifesto on which his government is based.

This soap opera cannot be good for Britain. We have a weakened prime minister battling with his own party when the country needs him to be fighting to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and save us from recession. Soap operas rarely have a happy ending.