Wes Streeting Accuses Israel Of War Crimes In Gaza

Wes Streeting told Peter Mandelson that Israel was “committing war crimes before our eyes” in Gaza, private WhatsApp messages have revealed.

The health secretary’s views put him at odds with the government’s official position on the conflict.

Streeting released all of his WhatsApps to Mandelson, who faces a criminal investigation into allegations he leaked sensitive government information to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary.

In one sent in July last year, he said: “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.”

He said Labour “need to be leading the charge on this”.

″The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the govt and the party,” he said.

In a later message, Streeting accused Israel of “rogue state behaviour”.

“Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers,” he said.

Speaking to Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast, the health secretary said: “I have made [Foreign Secretary] Yvette Cooper aware of what I’ve said about Palestine, Gaza, and the conduct of the Israeli government, and I hope that doesn’t cause colleagues difficulty because I have always been a team player.”

In another message to Mandelson, Streeting said the government “has no growth strategy at all” for the economy.

The Ilford North MP – who only retained his in 2024 with a majority of 528 – also told the disgraced peer he was “toast at the next election”.

Although the pair sign off some of their messages with kisses, Streeting insisted he was “not a close friend of Peter Mandelson”.