Streeting ‘has the numbers’ to challenge Starmer as Burnham eyes return
Sir Keir Starmer is facing the most serious threat to his leadership since entering Downing Street, with reports that Health Secretary Wes Streeting has secured enough support among Labour MPs to mount a formal challenge and could move within days of next week’s local elections.
According to multiple newspaper reports, Mr Streeting, 43, has the backing of more than 81 colleagues — the minimum threshold required to trigger a leadership contest. Those urging him on are said to want a bid launched as early as next Friday, just 24 hours after polls close on 7 May, in the expectation that Labour will suffer steep losses that could turn party sentiment decisively against the Prime Minister.
In an embarrassing twist for Downing Street, Sir Keir is reported to have been alerted to his Health Secretary’s intentions after a No 10 staff member accidentally sent a message detailing Mr Streeting’s plans. The leaked material is said to have included his proposed “PFG”, or programme for government, along with the so-called “five pillars” of his prospective leadership campaign.
Two scenarios are said to be under consideration in the Streeting camp. The Health Secretary could resign in the hope that other cabinet ministers follow him out, forcing the Prime Minister’s hand, or he could move directly to launch a campaign of his own. Either route, supporters believe, would catch potential rivals on the back foot, leaving figures such as Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham scrambling to assemble campaigns of their own.
Ms Rayner is reported to be in discussions with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Mr Burnham about a possible soft-left challenge, although she is said to remain undecided about whether to put her own name forward.
Mr Burnham’s manoeuvres, meanwhile, have moved onto a different track. According to The Guardian, the Manchester mayor is preparing to return to Westminster “within weeks” and has identified several seats where sitting MPs are prepared to stand aside, paving the way for a by-election. Constituencies across Merseyside and Greater Manchester are said to be among those in the frame, although Labour MP for Bootle Peter Dowd told the BBC earlier this week that he was not preparing to make way for the mayor.
Like those around Mr Streeting, Mr Burnham’s allies are reported to be hoping to avoid a formal leadership contest. Their preferred route is to use a poor local election performance to engineer Sir Keir’s departure, after which Mr Burnham — a former health secretary under Gordon Brown — would step forward with what The Guardian described as a “progressive policy platform for Government”. The mayor is also said to be lining up an “impressive” successor at City Hall, described as not being a sitting MP.
Mr Burnham’s path back to Parliament has not been straightforward. Earlier this year, Labour’s National Executive Committee blocked him from contesting the Gorton and Denton by-election, triggered when previous MP Andrew Gwynne stood down citing health reasons. The NEC cited the cost of holding a fresh mayoral contest and concerns that Reform could capture the mayoralty as the reasons for its decision.
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The political backdrop is the local elections on 7 May, in which around 5,000 council seats across England are being contested alongside elections to the Senedd in Wales and Holyrood in Scotland. Senior Labour figures are bracing for heavy losses. “I don’t think anyone really understands the scale of what is going to happen next week,” one Labour source told reporters. “Labour is going to lose in places it has never lost, including in parts of London. It will be destroyed in the Midlands and the North, and once the northern barons turn against Starmer, it’s over. It will be carnage.”
Sir Keir could in theory delay any announcement on his future until Labour’s September party conference, but allies privately concede the pressure may not allow him that long if the results prove as damaging as some fear.
Not all of the Cabinet is willing to entertain talk of a contest. Housing Secretary Steve Reed told The Times it would be “madness” for the party to move against the Prime Minister, warning of the dangers of internal warfare. “Loyalty in politics is a very important commodity,” he said. “If you are fighting each other then you are not fighting the common enemy. The common enemy here is the cost-of-living crisis, the lack of investment coming into our country, the fate of our high streets. We are always better as a party when we face outwards… when we turn in on ourselves, we’re basically telling the British public that we’re making ourselves irrelevant.”
Mr Streeting’s team has likewise sought to dampen the speculation. A spokesman for the Health Secretary said: “Wes has said repeatedly that he supports the Prime Minister. He is completely focused on his job, in which he has cut waiting lists to their lowest level for three years and got ambulances arriving faster than for half a decade.”
