Wes Streeting quits cabinet and calls on Starmer to resign

Wes Streeting has quit the cabinet as health secretary and called on Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister, saying there should now be a leadership contest.

Streeting, who is on the party’s right, has long been gathering support for a challenge and has spent the week gathering names of MPs for his nomination.

But in his letter to Starmer, Streeting did not launch his own challenge and instead called for the prime minister to resign and allow a formal leadership contest to take place with a broad range of candidates, a suggestion he should allow the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to fight the contest.

He criticised Starmer’s determination to stay, saying “your heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and that Labour MPs and Labour Unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism,” he said.

“It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope that you will facilitate this.”

Streeting told the prime minister in their meeting on Tuesday that he had lost confidence in him. His close ministerial allies Jess Phillips, Zubir Ahmed and Alex Davies-Jones stood down on Tuesday, calling for Starmer to resign.

Several of Streeting’s close allies, including Melanie Ward and his former ministerial aide Joe Morris as well as the backbenchers Chris Curtis, Alan Gemmel and Jas Athwal, have called for Starmer to go.

If he did not resign, Starmer would automatically be on the ballot paper in any contest, and his allies have made it clear that he would fight any attempt to dislodge him. Any race would mark the first time a challenger has attempted to dislodge a sitting Labour prime minister.

The challenge from Streeting comes as Starmer faces record-low popularity ratings, just two years after he came into office with a historic majority.

In his letter to Starmer, Streeting said that the local elections had convinced him that it was Starmer’s leadership which was at the heart of why people were turning away from Labour.

“There are many reasons we could point to: from individual mistakes on policy like the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the ‘island of strangers’ speech, all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for,” he said.

“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”