“STARMER-LITE” Wes Streeting has finally admitted that he will be standing in the Labour leadership election. He was the last person who didn’t know, but now he has stopped being coy and admitted the truth.
Streeting announced his candidacy at a Progress Conference in the afternoon of Saturday, 16th May. While rival Andy Burnham was already knocking doors in Makerfield, Streeting was addressing a small caucus in London about how Labour needs to get out more and listen to the people.
Progress was founded in the late 1990s with the aim of supporting Blair and his New Labour philosophy. They had hoped that Starmer would be a suitable standard-bearer for New Labour, but having seen the recent election results they have decided to ditch him and try to install Streeting.
Although Streeting was a key member of Keir Starmer’s cabinet, he has concentrated more on giving Starmer a telling off for being such a hopeless leader rather than admitting his own role in that Government. An apology would go down nicely at this point in time, but Streeting has missed the moment.
Strangely, Streeting has expressed hope that Andy Burnham will be a leadership contender too. Perhaps he realises that a coronation succession – like how Brown took over from Blair – will not go down well in the Party or the country. However, he can’t be wanting Burnham to win. Perhaps it is a desperate attempt to see off what remains of the left for the next five years and drive more members over to the Greens and let Progress have the whole Party.
Streeting’s speech to his adoring Blairites was mostly sanctimonious platitudes, but he did drop one policy bombshell. He made it clear that he wants the UK to join the EU again. This is a tremendous breakthrough. Usually the Blairite sections of the Labour Party respond to political pressure by caving into, or even outdoing, their critics. This time Streeting has responded to the pressure of the high vote for Reform UK by saying that he wants to move closer to the EU and then rejoin it. If rejoining the EU is Streeting’s strategy for defeating Farage at the ballot box, Farage will be immensely cheered.
Streeting’s announcement came on the afternoon of the Eurovision Song Contest Final – and as he gazed upwards while speaking into his microphone at the Progress Conference it looked like he was about to burst into a sentimental ballad. Perhaps we have misunderstood which European organisation Streeting wants to get back involved in. Unless he ups his game, though, he is heading for a solid nul points.
●Read more about it: Opportunist Streeting U-turns and ditches Starmer Starmer’s twin Streeting sells your data to US firm