One despairing minister said afterwards: \u201cThese people wouldn\u2019t have been out of place on the bridge of the Titanic.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prevailing wind, however, seemed to be with Starmer. \u201cMost people spoke about how, having worked extremely hard to be here, we seem determined to blow it up,\u201d one of those around the table said. \u201cThe message was that it\u2019s time to get behind the PM, and stop detracting from all the announcements we\u2019re trying to make. As a cabinet, we need to be more collegiate, more confident, and instil the rest of the party with the sense we can win the next election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Streeting v Starmer<\/p>\n
The subtext of every supportive speech was not especially difficult to decode. It was time for ministers criticising the government \u2014 namely Wes Streeting, the health secretary widely believed to be readying his own tilt for the premiership \u2014 to shut up.<\/p>\n
In private, some of his cabinet colleagues have had enough of Streeting. \u201cHe [Starmer] needs to sack him,\u201d one cabinet minister told The Times. \u201cWe can learn from Kemi Badenoch. What he\u2019s doing is so obvious, he is repeatedly breaching collective responsibility, he is attacking No 10, he is undermining all of us. The PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] don\u2019t like what he is doing, they would back him [the prime minister] if he acted.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Keir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/980d8cd9-6792-4f40-93a4-a296b48b7728.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Starmer and Streeting<\/p>\n
IAN FORSYTH\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Another cabinet minister said: \u201cWes is exactly the same as he was when he was 18 \u2026 if he doesn\u2019t become Labour prime minister he will tell himself his entire life has been a failure. Everything he\u2019s doing now is in pursuit of that aim. Has he been pushing the boundary of what\u2019s acceptable? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third cabinet minister said that Streeting\u2019s alleged disloyalty had become an open secret in No 10 and made fresh claims that he was canvassing support for a leadership bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows he has MPs from the 2024 intake telling anyone who\u2019ll listen that it\u2019s time to get rid of Keir and make Wes PM instead,\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019s wild behaviour. If he doesn\u2019t bring it to a head, he\u2019ll have to be brought to heel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cabinet ministers opposed to a change of leadership described Streeting as \u201clooking diminished\u201d by this long outbreak of performative loyalty during political cabinet, which culminated in a spontaneous round of applause for Starmer. Ignoring prepared remarks written by aides, the prime minister gave a spontaneous and emotional speech on his moral mission.<\/p>\n
A team in three camps<\/p>\n
There are indications, however, that Streeting is not alone in his concerns. Cabinet ministers speak of a top team divided into three camps as Labour approaches a set of local and devolved elections that could yet blow up Starmer\u2019s leadership: those who believe that only a change of leadership can save the government, the prime minister\u2019s loyalists, and a minority keeping their cards close to their chest.<\/p>\n
Everyone acknowledges that something has gone badly wrong. At one point Sir Alan Campbell, the Commons leader and former chief whip who usually keeps his counsel in cabinet meetings, was moved to slap down several ministers who blamed last year\u2019s turbulence on Labour MPs who were \u201cinexperienced and naive\u201d, \u201clacking nerve\u201d, and \u201cmaking things worse\u201d.<\/p>\n
Campbell broke his habitual silence to point out that if MPs and the wider party were distracted and complaining about the government and its communications strategy, ministers ought to ask themselves whether they had set a clear enough direction.<\/p>\n
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, also spoke of the need for Labour to offer a much clearer diagnosis of why Britain faces the problems Starmer still struggles to solve.<\/p>\n
\u2018Working class cabinet\u2019 is not enough<\/p>\n
Starmer spoke, as he did at a Chequers away day in July, of his ministers as \u201cthe most working class cabinet in history\u201d. But he then warned that distinction was \u201cabsolute bollocks\u201d unless their government served the people who had not been lucky enough to join them at the cabinet table: people like his own siblings. The cabinet were in power, Starmer stressed, to help those whose poor and difficult lives resembled that of his late brother, who \u201cdied with five pounds to his name\u201d in 2024, or his sister, a single mother and carer who has struggled in the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n
After enduring so many years of frustration with Starmer\u2019s strait-laced public persona, the cabinet were buoyed by his unexpected flash of passion. Arms aloft, Miliband let out a cheer and told him: \u201cNow you need to say that on TV!\u201d Even Streeting, who is top of Downing Street\u2019s most-wanted list as it moves to stamp out dissent, encouraged Starmer to show the same clarity of purpose in public.<\/p>\n
The unity may be short-lived, and few ministers \u2014 on either side of the equation \u2014 think that the apparent animus between Streeting and Starmer is sustainable in the long term<\/p>\n
In November the rift between the pair exploded into public view after the prime minister\u2019s allies briefed against the health secretary. Streeting hit back the following morning, accusing Starmer of overseeing a \u201ctoxic\u201d culture in No 10.<\/p>\n
He confronted Morgan McSweeney<\/a>, the prime minister\u2019s chief of staff, during a \u201csweary\u201d phone call. The New Statesman this week claimed that during the conversation, Streeting confirmed to McSweeney that he, along with several other cabinet ministers, was making plans for a leadership election. He wasn\u2019t plotting to challenge Starmer, Streeting is purported to have said, but simply planning for a leadership election \u201cas any self-respecting cabinet minister would\u201d.<\/p>\n Matters have not improved since. In December, Streeting went public again, this time warning that the government risked presenting itself as \u201cthe maintenance department for the country\u201d by taking a \u201ctechnocratic approach to government\u201d. Later in the week he hit out at ministers for reading out \u201cbig, long shopping lists\u201d of their achievements which failed to resonate with voters.<\/p>\n Streeting on manoeuvres? <\/p>\n Streeting had a relatively quiet start to the New Year \u2014 until this week. On Tuesday morning he took aim at ministers who blamed the civil service and quangos<\/a> for failing to get things done. \u201cIf we tell the public that we can\u2019t make anything work, then why on earth would they vote to keep us in charge?\u201d he asked<\/p>\n He also took a swipe at recent government U-turns \u2014 provocatively suggesting that he would do better. \u201cIn the NHS, we have an initiative called GIRFT \u2014 \u2018get it right first time\u2019,\u201d he said. That should be our new year\u2019s resolution for 2026 \u2014 let\u2019s try and get it right first time.<\/p>\n His speech was interpreted by colleagues as another attack on Starmer \u2014 a claim rejected by allies of Streeting. It also baffled ministers who had heard him tell last week\u2019s cabinet meeting that he had successfully taken on bureaucracy and blockers inside the NHS. Either way, No 10 were blindsided by the critical comments.<\/p>\n Then, on Wednesday evening, he used a speech to a 30th anniversary dinner for the Blairite pressure group Progress \u2014 attended by several other cabinet ministers and many of Labour\u2019s great and good \u2014 to defend the Corbynite left so loathed by the likes of McSweeney.<\/p>\n Though he also described himself as part of the party\u2019s \u201cmodernising, revisionist tradition\u201d and a \u201cmilitant moderate\u201d, some in the audience immediately suspected that his vow to \u201calways defend\u201d Socialist Campaign Group\u2019s place in Labour was an attempt to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the left ahead of a leadership contest.<\/p>\n In the middle of it all Streeting made a forthright statement on banning social media<\/a> for under-16s. At a time when the government was attempting to strike a delicate balance, Streeting said he was \u201ccertainly in favour of action in this area\u201d. Some colleagues said he had gone further than the official line, a claim rejected by the health secretary\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n