Labour latest: Backbench MPs split over Wes Streeting resignation

Wes Streeting has quit as Health Secretary, paving the way for a potential leadership challenge against Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

In his resignation letter, Mr Streeting criticised the ‘drift’ at the top of Government and told the Prime Minister it is ‘clear’ he will not lead Labour into the next election.

Mr Streeting’s resignation follows days of turmoil in which calls have mounted for the Prime Minister to step down in the wake of Labour’s election mauling last week.

Wes Streeting’s suggestion that the Labour leadership has left the country not knowing what it stands for is unfair, a minister said.

In his letter, Mr Streeting said mistakes made by the Government has left the country ‘not knowing who we are or what we really stand for’.

Asked whether that characterisation was unfair, skills minister Baroness Jacqui Smith told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:

Yes, I think it is. There is more that we need to do, to both communicate what we’ve already done, to speed up what we need to do to change this country, and to tell a story about the country that we’re going to be.

But just on this point about two years, you know, I’ve been around for a while. I went through, for example, the change of leadership from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.

Let’s remind ourselves that that was after Tony Blair had served 10 years and the Labour government had been in place for 10 years.

I don’t think I can remember a Labour government who, after two years, had delivered everything that we would have wanted them to do.

Sir Keir Starmer could win a leadership contest, a former minister who called for a challenge from the Cabinet has said.

Catherine West told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme:

What I would like to see is the honest conversation and people coming forward, including the Prime Minister if he is going to be a candidate in this particular race.

Because, of course, many of us like Keir very much as a person. He has got excellent credentials on the international stage and he could well win a competition if he put his name forward.

She added:

If Keir Starmer decides he has got the bottle and he can come and fight – fight as if he is fighting for the working people of this country – then he could beat the others, because he is a very bright man.

Wes Streeting pointed to new NHS figures in his resignation letter which were published just hours before he left the Government.

Earlier this morning it was reported the NHS has seen the biggest cut in waiting lists in a single month in 17 years only if the period of the Covid-19 pandemic is excluded.

An estimated 7.11 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of March this year, down 110,000 from 7.22 million at the end of February.

In his letter, Mr Streeting said:

Today’s figures confirm that we surpassed our waiting times target despite strikes, and that waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March – the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 – meaning that we are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.

A Labour backbencher has told the Press Association Wes Streeting has ‘screwed himself good and proper’ following his resignation.

The unnamed MP said his resignation letter ‘reads like he has no numbers’ to make a leadership challenge himself.

Allies of Sir Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting had been at odds over claims the former Health Secretary has the support of 81 MPs to trigger a leadership contest.

Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash reiterated his call for Sir Keir Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure following Wes Streeting’s resignation from Cabinet.

The Hartlepool MP posted on X:

The call for a broad contest with the best possible field of candidates is absolutely right from Wes Streeting.

The Prime Minister should now do the right thing for the country and set a timetable.

Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges says Wes Streeting’s call for the ‘best possible field of candidates’ implies Andy Burnham should have the opportunity to stand for the leadership.

The Health Secretary has fired the gun on a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership which is now in crisis.

All eyes will surely turn to Mr Burnham and whether he has a seat to get himself back in the Commons.

Wes Streeting told Sir Keir Starmer he needs to ‘listen to his backbenchers’ as he criticised his leadership in his resignation letter.

Around 90 Labour MPs have called on Sir Keir to stand down while four ministers have resigned over his leadership

Mr Streeting wrote:

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.

In his resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting said he ‘concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled’ to continue under his leadership.

He wrote:

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.

Read his full letter here:

Sir Keir Starmer would lose a head-to-head leadership vote against Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband…but not Wes Streeting.

A new poll by Labour List shows the Prime Minister would see off any challenge from the Health Secretary if the pair were put to members in a two-horse race.

Here are the results of the poll below:

A Labour MP in Manchester has declared he will not stand down for Andy Burnham amid reports he is preparing to give up his seat.

According to The Times, Afzal Khan is considering allowing the Manchester Mayor a run at the Commons by vacating his Manchester Rusholme seat.

The newspaper reports Mr Khan is waiting to see if Wes Streeting launches a leadership challenge before making a final decision.

But today Mr Khan has dismissed the report and declared, ‘ I don’t know where these rumours are coming from’.

He told the New Statesman: ‘There is no question of me resigning’.

Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges says while much of the attention in Westminster remains on Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham is garnering a lot of interest as well.

The Greater Manchester Mayor is reportedly set to announce he has found a seat to return to the Commons and stake his claim for the leadership.