{"id":582527,"date":"2026-05-13T22:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582527\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T22:50:07","slug":"wes-streeting-prepares-to-launch-leadership-challenge-against-keir-starmer-wes-streeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582527\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting prepares to launch leadership challenge against Keir Starmer | Wes Streeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wes Streeting is preparing to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer on Thursday if the health secretary can secure the support of enough MPs to trigger a contest.<\/p>\n

Streeting\u2019s move to force a race has sparked a frantic scramble on the left of Labour<\/a> to find a candidate to oppose him, with Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner both possible contenders.<\/p>\n

The health secretary, who is considered to be on the Blairite right of the party, has been organising an attempt to oust the prime minister for days since Labour\u2019s disastrous election results, despite his friends insisting he did not want to make the first move.<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, is the favoured replacement for Starmer by many on the soft left, but does not yet have a seat despite trying to persuade several MPs to stand down for him. His latest hopes are said to be Afzal Khan or Jeff Smith, both Manchester MPs. Khan has said he is focusing on the job but some of his friends believe he is preparing to step aside. If he was to do so, it would be difficult for Burnham to fight a byelection and enter parliament in time for any leadership contest triggered this week. However, there could be huge pressure on Labour\u2019s ruling body to delay any contest so that the mayor could run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Labour on the brink of civil war, Keir Starmer<\/a> was calling ministers and MPs into his office in parliament to plead with them not to allow a competition to be triggered. He told MPs that \u201cwe can\u2019t let a leadership contest plunge us into chaos\u201d and that a \u201cchallenge would 100% do that\u201d.<\/p>\n

His cabinet allies, including Rachel Reeves, were also in the tea rooms of the House of Commons urging MPs to consider that a leadership election would paralyse the ability of the government to get things done.<\/p>\n

Streeting was on Wednesday still working on getting the necessary 81 names to support his bid for the top job, with his outriders telling MPs that a contest was definitely on. The idea that Starmer had seen off a putsch was \u201claughable\u201d, one 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 Streeting is also known to have been calling MPs directly including some supporters of other candidates who were surprised to be rung.<\/p>\n

Some of his opponents were still sceptical that he had the numbers, given that many of those who have called on Starmer to go so far are from the left of the party. Streeting had a brief 16-minute coffee meeting with Starmer on Wednesday, with neither side revealing what had been said.<\/p>\n

Allies of Miliband, the energy secretary, said they believe he also has the required backing among MPs, while Rayner could also launch her own bid \u2013 although sources said she is still not dead set on being the left\u2019s candidate.<\/p>\n

Downing Street has insisted that Starmer would fight any challenge from Streeting and other candidates, having just set out a programme for government in the king\u2019s speech<\/a> that contains 30 new bills.<\/p>\n

However, Starmer supporters were also hinting that Downing Street may increasingly be coming round to the idea that they could drop opposition to Burnham becoming an MP later in the parliament.<\/p>\n

His closest friends say that if the polls still show Labour is floundering on 15% in the polls in May 2028 and Burnham\u2019s term in Greater Manchester is at an end, then an accommodation may be reached that Starmer will stand down.<\/p>\n

One cabinet minister supporter of Starmer said: \u201cIf you get to the point, closer to the election, where he can\u2019t win the election but somebody else could \u2026. if he reaches a point that he\u2019s clear in his own mind that it can\u2019t be done then he\u2019d make sure there was an orderly transition. But he\u2019s not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, other cabinet ministers have been telling Starmer that he should not fight a contest while still in office, and that it would have been better to set a timetable for his resignation.<\/p>\n

One senior Labour source pointed to Starmer\u2019s missteps in dealing with the crisis as a reason why he should not contest a challenge, highlighting his interview from over the weekend suggesting he wanted to stay in power for 10 years and decision to bring back Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to refresh his government.<\/p>\n

If Starmer does decide to run against Streeting \u2013 and an alternative candidate from the left \u2013 the prime minister would have a major advantage because of Labour\u2019s voting system, which is preferential.<\/p>\n

MPs say they are deeply concerned that because Starmer would probably collect most second preferences, in a three-way contest he could even come second and still remain leader and prime minister.<\/p>\n

There could also be a number of wildcard candidates from the cabinet and other MPs, including Lucy Powell, Bridget Phillipson, Yvette Cooper, and Al Carns.<\/p>\n

With Burnham out of the race in the immediate future, his allies in parliament have begun casting around for alternative plans. \u201cStopping Wes is the top priority,\u201d said one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMPs won\u2019t take the chance that Starmer could win \u2013 the soft left will not allow that. There will be a candidate, the idea of Wes losing to Starmer is absolute madness,\u201d another MP allied with Burnham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWes could end up like Owen Smith, that is absolutely the end of your political career,\u201d one MP said.<\/p>\n

While Streeting could gain support from some more resigning ministers on Thursday, some MPs were furious at what they saw as him destabilising the party when it was meant to be presenting its programme for government. \u201cColleagues are very, very, very angry with Wes,\u201d said one MP supporting Starmer to stay on in the job.<\/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":"Wes Streeting is preparing to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer on Thursday if the health secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-582527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582527","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=582527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}