{"id":581778,"date":"2026-05-13T13:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581778\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T13:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:49:09","slug":"wes-streeting-plans-to-resign-and-mount-leadership-challenge-allies-say-wes-streeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581778\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting plans to resign and mount leadership challenge, allies say | Wes Streeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allies of Wes Streeting<\/a> have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.<\/p>\n

Downing Street insiders had suggested Streeting did not yet have the required support from 81 MPs, which is needed to formally launch a leadership bid, after the prime minister issued a \u201cput up or shut up\u201d ultimatum to his cabinet.<\/p>\n

A source close to the health secretary told the Guardian on Wednesday that he was planning to resign on Thursday and launch a leadership bid. The idea that Starmer had seen off a putsch was \u201claughable\u201d, they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has the numbers till the bell is struck, even canvassing isn\u2019t real, people need certainty before they write their name down. But he thinks he\u2019s got the numbers,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

A second MP, also close to the Streeting camp, said they had been involved in discussions about getting the requisite numbers he would need to trigger a contest, and had begun ringing round MPs.<\/p>\n

Two other MPs said they had been called by allies of Streeting on Tuesday evening to tell them: \u201cHe\u2019s going for it.\u201d One said they were unsure if the health secretary had sufficient backing to go through with the plan.<\/p>\n

Both the briefing and the timing of it, minutes before the start of the king\u2019s speech, prompted annoyance among some Starmer allies in the cabinet. \u201cIt\u2019s not great for this to happen with the monarch in parliament,\u201d one source said.<\/p>\n

Streeting held brief talks with Starmer in Downing Street on Wednesday morning<\/a>, but the health secretary\u2019s spokesperson said he was not planning to comment afterwards in order not to distract from the king\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s official spokesperson declined to say what was discussed between the pair, but said the health secretary remained in his job, adding: \u201cThe prime minister has full confidence in the health secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another MP, a close ally of Starmer, said the prime minister had always believed Streeting would not win the party and that he would fight any challenge \u2013 despite intense pressure from MPs who have publicly called for him to go.<\/p>\n

One cabinet ally of the prime minister told the Guardian: \u201cPersonally I\u2019d throw him in the river but luckily Keir Starmer<\/a> is a calm and patient person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, Zubir Ahmed, a close ally of Streeting who quit as a minister on Tuesday, renewed calls for the prime minister to resign, saying his authority had \u201cirretrievably ebbed away\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-581778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581778","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=581778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}