Streeting: “I Will Be Standing” in Any Labour Leadership Contest
Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting confirmed on Saturday that he will challenge Sir Keir Starmer in any Labour leadership contest. “We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I will be standing,” Streeting told the Progress group’s annual conference in London. The declaration ends a week of speculation about whether the parliamentary right would back Andy Burnham unopposed. Streeting resigned from the Cabinet on Thursday and publicly backed Burnham’s Makerfield by-election bid on Friday.
A leadership contest is not yet formally triggered: under Labour’s rules a challenger needs the support of 81 MPs — 20% of the parliamentary party — to force the vote, and around 80 Labour MPs have publicly demanded the Prime Minister’s departure but the signatures have not been submitted in coordinated form. The Guardian quoted a Starmer ally on Streeting’s position: “This was Wes’s moment and he messed it up. Everyone has been expecting him to go for it more or less since we got into office, and this was his chance. And he got 40 MPs. It’s embarrassing.” Streeting’s Saturday move re-opens the question by promising a contest if one is triggered.