{"id":418998,"date":"2026-02-11T01:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418998\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:13:06","slug":"streeting-still-ready-to-challenge-starmer-despite-show-of-unity-allies-say-wes-streeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418998\/","title":{"rendered":"Streeting still ready to challenge Starmer despite show of unity, allies say | Wes Streeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allies of Wes Streeting<\/a> expect him to try to challenge Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership within weeks, despite the health secretary insisting he backs the prime minister and is not intending to move against him, the Guardian has been told.<\/p>\n

Starmer attempted to regain authority over his party on Tuesday after a tumultuous day<\/a> in Westminster during which he was denounced by the Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and lost his director of communications.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said on Tuesday he would \u201cnever walk away\u201d from his task of changing the UK, and was bolstered further by public displays of support from both Streeting and the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham.<\/p>\n

But MPs who are close to the health secretary insist he still wants to replace Starmer and is willing to stand against him soon after the Gorton and Denton byelection later this month.<\/p>\n

One said he would need to act immediately after the May local elections at the latest to pre-empt a potential challenge from his most likely rival Angela Rayner, who is waiting for the outcome of a probe into her property taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has changed,\u201d said one. \u201cThere was a big performance of unity yesterday but Keir is no safer than he was yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another added: \u201cWe need to act quickly. There is a big risk that we meander and end up in this tepid decline where we all make ourselves feel better but a Reform government becomes inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWes has the numbers, but it will require a steeliness and a determination that most colleagues have not to date shown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The person added: \u201cAt this point Keir is a zombie. He is in the Theresa May phase of his leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Streeting spokesperson said, however, that the MPs\u2019 claims were \u201ccategorically not true\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another Labour backbencher said: \u201cThe reality is the public does not like or trust Keir Starmer<\/a>. Once we have the results of the local elections, it will become unavoidably clear that something bigger needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MPs\u2019 comments contrast with the public display of unity shown by cabinet members on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Streeting himself told the BBC<\/a>: \u201cThe prime minister has got my full support. He is leading our country through an enormous set of challenges and people have got to recognise the integrity with which he does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event in central London, Burnham also gave his backing<\/a> to the prime minister, saying it was time for everyone to be \u201cfacing in the same direction and pulling in the same direction around our ambitions\u201d. He added however, that the government should be more ambitious, notably on housing.<\/p>\n

Starmer chaired a lengthy meeting of cabinet on Tuesday morning at which ministers conducted what one source called a \u201cfrank and broad\u201d discussion of what had gone wrong with the prime minister\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

One cabinet insider said afterwards: \u201cWe think Keir should remain in place but the culture in No 10 has to change completely and the briefings against colleagues need to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that meeting, Streeting and Starmer held a one-on-one meeting, which one source said was intended to clear the air between the pair of them.<\/p>\n

Starmer gave a speech at an event in Hertfordshire on Tuesday at which he insisted: \u201cI will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country, I will never walk away from the people that I\u2019m charged with fighting for, and I will never walk away from the country that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government officials say they are still trying to work out whether there was any coordination between the health secretary and Sarwar, who prompted the crisis on Monday by calling for the prime minister to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One senior minister said: \u201cThere were junior ministers and PPSs [parliamentary private secretaries] ready to go. It went off half cocked. There was a plan, it just didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the story now is Wes\u2019s misjudgment. The release of the [Peter Mandelson] texts has not relieved people of their doubts and it looks obsessive, even desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Downing Street source added: \u201cWes just did not move, this all feels very James Purnell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purnell resigned as Gordon Brown\u2019s work and pensions secretary<\/a> in 2009 in a move that was expected to prompt a leadership bid by his ally David Miliband, which then never came.<\/p>\n

Others however, have concluded there was no coordination between Streeting and Sarwar, even if they do not trust the health secretary\u2019s reassurances of support in the future.<\/p>\n

They point to the fact that Streeting had been planning to release his text messages<\/a> with Mandelson on Monday, making it a less than ideal time to also mount a coup.<\/p>\n

Allies of Streeting also pointed out that while Sarwar was speaking, the health secretary was giving an interview to Sky News in which he offered his support to the prime minister.<\/p>\n

One said: \u201cBefore Anas Sarwar made his statement, Wes told Sky News that Keir needs to be given a chance and shouldn\u2019t resign. I\u2019m afraid the conspiracy theory doesn\u2019t fit the timeline of events.\u201d<\/p>\n

A minister added: \u201cNo 10 seems to have an obsession with Wes. People are saying that he bottled it without any evidence he was going for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWes is a smart political operator who would have known that if you get out and call for the PM to go and don\u2019t have a plan and outriders come in behind you, it would fall flat.\u201d<\/p>\n

MPs believe that Starmer\u2019s future now depends on the results of both the Gorton and Denton byelection and the subsequent local elections in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeir is there but he can\u2019t stay for long\u2019\u201d said one. \u201cHis name keeps coming up on the doorstep \u2013 people hate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t fully trust him before the election and they definitely don\u2019t after [his decision to cut] winter fuel payments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allies of Wes Streeting expect him to try to challenge Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership within weeks, despite the health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-418998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}