Wes Streeting risked fuelling the Labour leadership frenzy today as he launched a veiled barb at ‘maintenance’ man Keir Starmer.
The Health Secretary has been at the centre of intense speculation about his intentions amid growing doubts about the PM’s prospects of survival.
And he delivered a stinging assessment of the government’s performance under Sir Keir in an interview with left-wing Bible the New Statesman.
Mr Streeting voiced ‘frustration’ with Downing Street’s failure to sell Labour’s achievements.
He suggested notoriously dour Sir Keir was presenting his administration as a ‘maintenance department for the country’.
The Cabinet minister – whose allies are rumoured to be wooing Angela Rayner for a future leadership ‘dream ticket’ – also warned of the dangers of trying to ‘out-Reform Reform’ and stressed the need to lower the tax burden.
The intervention will heap more pressure on Sir Keir, who is struggling against apocalyptic polls and a Budget seen as having landed badly with the public.
Local elections in May are increasingly seen as a critical moment that could decide whether the premier can hang on.
Mr Streeting condemned the bungled political ‘hit job’ by Sir Keir’s allies, which saw him accused of leadership plotting.
‘It sort of came from the blue,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t understand what on Earth they were thinking. Putting to one side the attempted drive-by on me, I could not understand the political strategy of people who purport to be the Prime Minister’s allies going out and saying he’s fighting for his job.’
In a withering verdict on the party’s current approach, Mr Streeting said: ‘I’m pretty frustrated, to be honest.
‘I feel like on one hand, since we’ve come into government, we’ve actually done a huge amount that we said we’d do…
‘But that’s not reflected in the polls, and I don’t think it’s even reflected in our storytelling. I think we sell ourselves short.’
He went on: ‘The problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, ”Well, I’ve got a maintenance company too, and mine’s cheaper,” why wouldn’t people go, ”OK, well, we’ll give that maintenance team a try”?’
He said Labour should be campaigning on fundamental values, such as ‘who believes in a National Health Service’.
Mr Streeting laid out a Blairite stance intended to attract centrist voters.
‘Labour performs at its best when we are a party of both the left and the centre,’ he said.
‘We’ve got to be a party that is about investing in public services, but also modernising public services so they change with the times and meet changing needs in our society.’
That meant championing attracting global talent and welcoming refugees but also being ‘a party of strong borders’,’ he added.
In the wake of Rachel Reeves’ latest huge Budget tax raid, Mr Streeting said Labour should not be ‘complacent about the tax burden in this country’.
Taxes can only be cut for working people ‘if we get the economy really motoring’ by allowing business to create wealth, he said.
‘Governments can help create the conditions for growth, but it’s business, enterprise and innovation that really drives [it]… We’ve got to make sure as progressives that we recognise that in order to redistribute wealth, you’ve got to create it,’ Mr Streeting said.
The Health Secretary said Labour could not ‘win by out-Reforming Reform’ – another criticism that has been made of Sir Keir by MPs.
‘We will certainly not be true to our values and our soul if we try and out-reform Reform,’ he said.
‘We can take them on and beat them with values-driven Labour arguments. We can reunite the centre and the left, and I think that is the historic responsibility that we have.’
‘It will be Labour or Reform, and that is a battle not just between left and right, but between right and wrong, between progressives and reactionaries, and between hope or hate. We cannot let them win.’
Challenged if he thought 2026 would be the year he becomes PM, Mr Streeting said: ‘I’m definitely not indulging any of that. I think we had quite enough of that with the drive-by the other week.
‘The level of silliness we saw was like panto season come early. So I think the answer to your question is: oh no, he’s not.’
