WES STREETING has resigned as Health Secretary. His resignation letter explains that he has lost confidence in Keir Starmer’s leadership. And that’s the problem.
Wes Streeting was part of Keir Starmer’s government. All the actions Starmer took and which Starmer has recognised as mistakes – cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance, keeping the two-child benefit cap (which was such a huge mistake it has now been lifted), and the war on migrants – Streeting strode through the voting lobby in support of them all.
And this is what puts Streeting in a quandary.
•Is he admitting that he, Streeting, was just as wrong as Starmer when he, Streeting, supported all Starmer’s anti-working class policies, the ones which lost Labour so many votes in the May elections? Streeting accuses Starmer of “dither”: Streeting supported that “dither”, at least in public. Admitting he has been wrong for the last two years is hardly a good start to a leadership challenge. “Trust me: I’ll eventually work out where I’ve been going wrong” is not a good slogan for an election leaflet.
•Alternatively, is Streeting saying that he knew Starmer was leading the Labour Party to electoral defeat, but kept quiet out of loyalty (or an emotion similar to loyalty – ambition, perhaps)? Again, that is not a good launching pad for a leadership election campaign.
Streeting is an opportunist. He has not stepped in to help a Party in need of a saviour. He just wants to be Prime Minister – and he has seized the moment.
Timing is not Streeting’s strength either. A clever politician would have resigned at 12.30pm, giving the 1 o’clock news bulletins time to digest his resignation letter and prepare their broadcasts. Instead, he resigned at 1pm, leaving newsreaders interrupting the headlines to say “I’m just being told that Wes Streeting has resigned” – and going over to journalists who read out his letter live on air. Guests who had come in the speculate on the Labour leadership were suddenly on the spot, having to form opinions live on air.
Streeting’s resignation letter put the boot into the Starmer Government, but it did not announce that Streeting would trigger a leadership election. It just said that there should be a broad debate on the way forward for Labour. That’s a hoot too. Before 7th May, Streeting knew the way forward for Labour: it was more of Town Hall same – until the voters wandered off to other parties. Now he wants party members and the unions to debate the way forward, but he hasn’t said he wants to embrace the outcome of that debate. Does he want members to debate the way forward, or decide it? Either way, we don’t know the political basis on which he might stand in a leadership campaign.
It can only be a matter of time before someone comes out with the obvious: bring back Corbyn!
●Read more about it: McSweeney falls on sword in desperate move to save Starmer Starmer moves on migrants