Wes Streeting Prepared To Launch Leadership Challenge Against Starmer Next Week

Wes Streeting is prepared to launch a Labour leadership challenge next week to end the “uncertainty and paralysis” over Keir Starmer’s future.

The former health secretary said the prime minister should be given the weekend to decide whether or not he wants to stand down in the wake of Thursday’s Makerfield by-election.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham appears to be on course to beat Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon to become the new MP for the seat.

Burnham has already said he will join any Labour leadership contest.

Starmer himself reiterated on Monday that he would also stand in an attempt to cling onto his job.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight programme, Streeting said he was ready to bring the situation to a head.

“We can’t carry on with this uncertainty and paralysis, and there will need to be a contest, and I’d be prepared to do that,” he said.

Asked when that might be, he said he did not want to “get into, ‘is it Monday, is it Tuesday’”, but that Starmer should be given “space over the weekend” to consider his position.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Streeting called on the PM to say when he plans to leave No.10 if Burnham wins the by-election.

He said: “When the results are in, I hope the prime minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable.

“I think that would be a better way forward for everyone.”

But speaking at the G7 summit in France, Starmer once again insisted he will not walk away from the job.

“If there is a contest, I intend to be in it and to fight it,” the prime minister told Times Radio.

He added “They said it’s not possible to turn the Labour Party around. It’s not possible to win an election.

“It’s not possible if you do win an election to invest in your public services and stabilise the economy – wrong every time, and that’s why I intend not to walk away from this, but to carry on with what I was elected to do, which is to serve this country, bring back the change that people desperately need in their lives.”

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