Keir Starmer is in full-on meltdown mode today as his allies launched a ‘Stop Streeting’ campaign just a fortnight before the crucial Budget.
The PM’s supporters made clear he will fight any leadership challenge in an extraordinary pre-emptive strike on plotters.
But the Health Secretary immediately hit back by accusing No10 of ‘self-destruction’ and demanding he should sack the aides responsible for the briefing.
He dismissed ‘daft’ claims he is planning to challenge Sir Keir – while not completely ruling out the idea – and suggested those conducting the Downing Street briefings had been watching too much Traitors on TV.
Notably, Mr Streeting also admitted has had not spoken to the premier since the chaos erupted last night.
Furious MPs accused No10 of having ‘lost the plot’, with fingers pointed at chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. But rumours have been sweeping Westminster, and friends of Sir Keir are said to be concerned he could be dethroned if the Budget – expected to include massive tax hikes – lands badly.
The assault from No10 was seemingly timed to coincide with Mr Streeting touring broadcast studios for a big NHS announcement.
But it has spooked the markets, with yields on 10-year gilts – the main way the government borrows – rising. The Tories accused Sir Keir of ‘machine-gunning’ his own ministers instead of ‘fixing the country’.
Alongside Mr Streeting, former deputy PM Angela Rayner and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are regarded by some as ‘on manoeuvres’.
But Sir Keir is said to have told ministers any attempted coup would destabilise financial markets.
One supporter told The Times: ‘Keir knows he is already fighting a leadership contest. When it comes, he won’t resign. He will fight it. He thinks it’s fantasy politics.’
Downing Street figures have raised concerns that Mr Streeting is preparing to demand the PM’s resignation after the Budget.
MPs have been threatening to revolt if Chancellor Rachel Reeves hikes income tax for the first time in 50 years – something that would flagrantly breach Labour’s manifesto.
But asked whether he was planning a leadership challenge, the Health Secretary told Sky News: ‘No, and I think whoever’s been briefing this has been watching too much Celebrity Traitors, and this is just about the worst attack on a faithful I’ve seen since Joe Marler was kicked out and banished in the final.
‘It’s totally self defeating briefing, not least because it’s not true and I don’t understand how anyone thinks it’s helpful to the Prime Minister either.’
Asked if he would rule out demanding Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation after the Budget, he said: ‘Yes, and nor did I shoot JFK.
‘I don’t know where Lord Lucan is, had nothing to do with Shergar, and I do think that the US did manage to do the moon landings. I don’t think they were fake.’
Mr Streeting pointedly referenced Lucy Powell, the ‘anti-Keir’ candidate who recently won the deputy leadership contest.
‘What I think this does show is that when Lucy Powell stood to be deputy leader of the Labour Party and said there needed to be a culture change in how we lead and how the party is managed, I think she has been vindicated,’ he said.
He added: ‘I do think that going out and calling your Labour MPs feral is not very helpful.
‘I do think that trying to kneecap one of your own team when they are out, not just making the case for the Government, but actually delivering the change that we promised, I think that is also self-defeating and self-destructive behaviour.
‘I also think whoever did this doesn’t speak for the Prime Minister. I speak for the Prime Minister.’
He added he thought Sir Keir would be ‘horrified’ reading reports of briefing against Cabinet members.
On the prospect of a challenge to Sir Keir, Mr Streeting told BBC Breakfast: ‘I cannot see circumstances in which I would do that to our Prime Minister.’
He added: ‘I also think that taking on that job feels like more of a punishment than anything else at the moment, given how hard the Prime Minister’s job is, that’s why he’s got full support.
‘That’s why I constantly support him in the job that he’s doing. And I’ve always been a team player. That is how I do things, and that’s how I will always do things.’
Labour MPs voiced despair at the eruption of psychodrama. One told the Daily Mail they did not believe highly coordinated plotting was taking place.
‘There’s people with complaints and moans – some reasonable and some not,’ they said.
Another Labour insider said the intervention from No10 was ‘quite something’.
A veteran aide said Downing Street was trying to ‘smoke out’ Mr Streeting. ‘There are at least four leadership campaigns up and running,’ they added.
However, they warned the tactic was ‘unwise’ and took aim at No10 communications director Tim Allan and Sir Keir’s biographer Tom Baldwin.
‘There is no one in the country that’s more out of touch with the real Britain then Tim Allan and Tom Baldwin, with the possible exceptions of the Prime Minister and Ed Miliband,’ they added.
Mr Baldwin, a former comms chief for Mr Miliband who is known to be close to the PM, has also criticised the No10 briefing.
‘I’m at a loss to understand why anyone would think this sort of briefing will help Keir Starmer, the government, or even their own cause. Some people just can’t resist, I guess, but it’s all a bit nuts,’ he posted on X.
The chairwoman of the Red Wall group of Labour MPs said the party was ‘fighting like dogs’.
Bassetlaw MP Jo White told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘Our enemies love nothing more than when we start fighting like dogs in public, and my message to those MPs who are running around with their tails held high: That this is neither the time or the place.
‘This is a group of people who think they’re much cleverer than the rest of us, who spend their time selectively briefing journalists and stirring the pot. I want to simply say: We’re not having it.
‘I’m not aware of a single person in the red wall group who’s involved in this. And if anyone, including Wes Streeting, wants to make a move, they would have to speak to us. He’s a London MP and it hasn’t happened and it’s not true.’
Ms White added: ‘I’d like to say to No 10, I think they’re barking up the wrong tree, briefing against Wes.
‘I’ve known Wes since he was NUS president. He’s one of the tiny handful of MPs who came up to Bassetlaw to help me with my election.
‘He’s only just recently written a really kind letter to one of my members who lost her husband. And I think I’d know – he’d tell me if he was manoeuvring.’
The bar for ousting a Labour PM is very high. At least 81 rebels would need to unite around a single candidate, and even then there would need to be a contest at the next party conference.
However, in reality Sir Keir would struggle to survive losing the confidence of the Cabinet.
And dissent has been growing in the Parliamentary party. One Labour MP told the New Statesman: ‘If this is a marriage, the two sides have reached the ‘staying together for the kids’ stage.’
An aide told the publication – historically viewed as the ‘bible of the Labour Party’ of Sir Keir: ‘He doesn’t understand politics or the Labour Party, he doesn’t have a vision, he’s a terrible communicator.
‘We’ve always known these things about him, but we put up with it when we were doing OK against the Tories.’
One cabinet minister also criticised Sir Keir for not getting a grip: ‘There are some things you have to grip yourself. He doesn’t.’
As the briefing raged last night, one minister told the BBC that the Prime Minister ‘will fight this’.
They added: ‘He is one of only two people alive who have won a general election for Labour. It’d be madness to run against him after 17 months.’
Another minister who believes Sir Keir should stay until the next election said the PM is at the mercy of ‘feral’ Labour MPs from the 2024 intake.
Sir Keir is aware of the growing threat to his position and is ‘already fighting the leadership election’ by reaching out to Labour backbenchers, according to The Times.
The Prime Minister has reportedly told ministers that any attempted coup would destabilise Britain’s standing on the financial markets and its relationship with foreign governments.
Other names said to be in contention are Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, and backbenchers including the former transport secretary Louise Haigh.
Another Labour source said: ‘The list of reasons for people to move after the Budget are growing by the day.
‘If Wes is brave and moves he may well be rewarded by being prime minister by Christmas.’
But a spokesman for Mr Streeting said the claims were ‘categorically untrue’.
The spokesman added: ‘Wes’s focus has entirely been on cutting waiting lists for the first time in 15 years, recruiting 2,500 more GPs, and rebuilding the NHS that saved his life.’
Critics have warned that Downing Street was ‘in full bunker mode’ which ‘won’t help the Government out of the hole we’re in’.
A source said No 10 was ‘turning on their most loyal Cabinet members for absolutely no reason’.
‘Unfortunately there is a pattern of Keir’s team briefing against his own people… now it’s Wes’s turn,’ the source added.
