A fresh row broke out between Wes Streeting and Downing Street on Monday night after the Health Secretary accused No 10 of briefing against him while he was out defending the Prime Minister.
Downing Street accused Mr Streeting of co-ordinating with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to call for Keir Starmer to quit over the Peter Mandelson scandal, the Health Secretary’s spokesman said.
The hostile briefing against him took place while Mr Streeting was doing an interview with Sky News in which he expressed support for the Prime Minister, they added.
Despite that support, the Health Secretary seemed to be clearing the path for a potential leadership bid as he published his private WhatsApp messages with Peter Mandelson.
As dark clouds gathered around the PM last week, Mr Streeting’s name was once again thrown into the mix to replace him, leading to a vicious briefing war with other rivals, who made much of his friendship with the now-disgraced peer.
In a bid to distance himself, the Health Secretary handed to Sky News messages that showed him making scathing remarks about the Prime Minister and Labour’s direction.
He complained the Government had ‘no growth strategy at all’ and agreed with Lord Mandelson’s comment that ‘the government problems do not stem from comms’, suggesting the issue was the Sir Keir himself.
Other cosy messages, sent between August 2024 and October last year, show the familiar relationship between the pair, with the Health Secretary at one point praising the ‘lovely photos’ of Lord Mandelson in a newspaper profile. Some are even signed off with a kiss.
The messages reveal that the Mr Streeting – who has a majority of just 528 in his Ilford North seat – fears being ‘toast at the next election’, adding: ‘There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?’
The Health Secretary also told Mandelson that Israel was ‘committing war crimes before our eyes’ and that he believed the UK needed to join France in recognising the state of Palestine.
The WhatsApp messages were set to come out when the government publishes its Mandelson Files, currently under consideration by the Intelligence and Security Committee, into the former spin doctor’s doomed appointment as US ambassador despite his closeness to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Relations between the ambitious Mr Streeting and No 10 have been fractious since last year, when another briefing row blew up, leading to the Health Secretary accusing Sir Keir of presiding over a ‘toxic culture’ in Downing Street.
Meanwhile persistent rumours that Mr Streeting is plotting to dislodge Sir Keir have led to fellow ministers urging the Prime Minister to ‘bring Wes to heel’.
On Monday, Mr Streeting’s spokesman told the Times: ‘Wes did not ask Anas to do this, he did not co-ordinate with Anas on this. Anas is the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, he is his own man, and Wes has the highest respect for him.
‘At the same time as Wes was in an interview saying that Keir needed a chance to set out his case and his plan, No 10 were briefing that Wes had told Anas Sarwar to make his statement. This is the problem.’
Writing for the Guardian last night, Mr Streeting said that contrary to reports he ‘was not a ‘close friend’ of Peter Mandelson, but I am not going to wash my hands of my actual association with him either,’ saying this was why he had decided to publish the messages.
Did Wes Streeting do the right thing by releasing the messages?
Comment now
He added: ‘We saw each other for dinner on average once a year with others. He offered advice. My partner worked for him 25 years ago and I therefore got to know Mandelson better than some of that generation in politics.’
No 10 was approached for comment.
