Wes Streeting Resigns From Government

Wes Streeting has resigned as Keir Starmer’s health secretary with a ferocious attack on the prime minister.

The MP for Ilford North hit out at the prime minister in a statement, saying: “As you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled to do so.”

He said: “Last week’s election results were unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat and the consequences of that failure.

“For the first time in our country’s history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom – including a dangerous English nationalism represented by Nigel Farage and Reform UK.

“This represents both an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, but Reform UK also represent a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great.

“Progressives across our country understand this threat and our responsibility to confront it, but they are increasingly losing faith that the Labour Party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.”

Streeting did welcome the new NHS statistics released today, showing the government has surpassed its waiting times targets and claiming that progress came down to the Labour government’s work.

But, he said: “There is no doubt that the unpopularity of this government was a major and common factor in our defeats across England, Scotland and Wales. Good Labour people lost through no fault of their own.

“There are many reasons we could point to: from individual mistakes on policy like the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the ‘island of strangers’ speech, all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for.”

Streeting said Starmer has “many great strengths that I admire”, pointing to Labour’s 2024 general election victory.

He said: “I was proud to fight alongside you in the trenches of that campaign. You have shown courage and statesmanship on the world stage – not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran.

“But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

The former health secretary said: “It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and that 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.”

It comes after more than 90 Labour MPs publicly called for Starmer to resign, while four ministers and four ministerial aides quit and urged the prime minister to set out a timetable for his departure.

Fury towards Starmer reached a tipping point after Labour’s catastrophic results in last week’s elections in England, Scotland and Wales.

Streeting has long-held ambitions to be the prime minister and speculation he would offer a direct challenge to Starmer mounted this week as the ex-health secretary’s allies pointedly called for the PM to step down.

However, he stopped short of announcing his leadership bid in his resignation letter.

Angela Rayner is also now free to launch a leadership bid having been cleared of any wrongdoing by the tax man this week.

The former deputy prime minister has paid the £40,000 she owed His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, who said they were satisfied there had been no tax avoidance.

She refused to rule out standing in a contest but insisted she would not directly challenge Starmer.

Any challenger needs the support of 20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party, working out to 81 MPs according to its current number of seats.

Only Starmer himself would not need to meet that threshold as he is the incumbent leader, meaning he is automatically on the ballot.

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