Wes Streeting dramatically resigned as Health Secretary at lunchtime today, launching an extraordinary attack on Sir Keir Starmer and plunging Labour into fresh civil war turmoil.
In a blistering resignation letter, Mr Streeting said he had “lost confidence” in the Prime Minister’s leadership and warned it was now “clear” Sir Keir would not lead Labour into the next general election.
The Cabinet resignation, which came after Labour’s bruising local election losses, is set to intensify speculation over a possible leadership contest, with senior figures including Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham, Al Carns and Angela Rayner all seen as potential contenders.
In his explosive letter, Mr Streeting accused Sir Keir of presiding over a government lacking “vision” and “direction”, while alienating voters with controversial decisions and rhetoric.
He pointed to Labour’s decision to cut the winter fuel allowance, alongside Sir Keir’s “island of strangers” migration speech, as examples of damaging political missteps that had left the public uncertain “who we are or what we really stand for”.
Mr Streeting wrote: “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”
In another pointed criticism, he suggested Sir Keir had repeatedly avoided taking personal responsibility for political failures.
“Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords,” he wrote.
The resignation comes despite Mr Streeting using much of the letter to highlight what he described as major achievements during his time running the NHS.
He said waiting lists had fallen by 110,000 in March, describing it as the biggest monthly reduction outside the Covid pandemic since 2008, while ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes were now the fastest in five years.
Mr Streeting also claimed Labour had recruited 2,000 additional GPs, increased public satisfaction with GP services from 60 per cent to 74.5 per cent, and hired 8,500 mental health staff three years ahead of schedule.
He wrote: “The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values. Thanks to our Labour government, it is on the road to recovery.”
However, he said remaining in government after losing faith in Sir Keir’s leadership would be “dishonourable and unprincipled”.
The former Health Secretary warned Labour was facing an “existential threat” from the rise of Nigel Farage and Reform UK, following disastrous local election results across England, Scotland and Wales.
He described Reform as representing “a dangerous English nationalism” and said many progressive voters were “losing faith” in Labour’s ability to defeat racism and offer hope to the country.
Mr Streeting said: “For the first time in our country’s history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom.”
Despite his fierce criticism, he praised Sir Keir for leading Labour to its 2024 election victory and for showing “courage and statesmanship on the world stage”, including keeping Britain out of conflict in Iran.
But he insisted the scale of Labour’s recent electoral collapse meant the party now needed an open debate about its future leadership.
“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 wrote.
“It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates.”
The resignation will pile fresh pressure on Keir Starmer, who has spent recent days attempting to calm growing unrest within Labour following the party’s heavy local election losses.
However, allies of the Prime Minister insisted he would not resign and was prepared to fight any challenge to his leadership.
READ STREETING’S RESIGNATION LETTER HERE:
