Health Secretary Wes Streeting emerges as leadership challenger, warring sides pause for King’s speech
London: Warring factions are set for bruising fight over the Labour leadership after a brief pause to hear King Charles address the British parliament, with the government in disarray and a top minister, Wes Streeting, poised to seek the top job.
All sides stopped to hear the King’s speech at the opening of parliament in Westminster on Wednesday morning despite the turmoil over the government’s direction, as the monarch read out a policy agenda that may not survive a leadership spill.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is daring his challengers to call a formal contest if they want to blast him out of the job, declaring he was chosen by the voting public at a general election and will stay focused on his work.
Streeting, the Health Secretary, met Starmer for about 20 minutes in Downing Street on Wednesday morning (late on Wednesday AEST) to discuss the leadership but made no public statement about his plans in the hours after their talks.
Once the King had addressed parliament, Streeting’s allies briefed the British press on his intention to launch a challenge as soon as the following day.
The manoeuvres continue the drawn-out ploys being used to put pressure on Starmer after a devastating defeat to Labour candidates at local and regional elections last Thursday, but Streeting faced new heat in parliament over his leadership moves.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch took a swipe at the health secretary during questions in the House of Commons when she accused the government of being slow to act on its promises to fix the National Health Service.
“I suppose the health secretary has been a bit distracted lately, hasn’t he? Why don’t you just do your job? Do your job,” Badenoch said to Streeting across the chamber, as he shot back an inaudible reply.
“There’s no point him giving me dirty looks,” she added. “We all know what he’s been up to.”
Streeting, 43, is a centrist who was president of the National Union of Students from 2008 to 2010, became a local councillor in a north London borough in 2010 and entered parliament in 2015. He has been Health Secretary since Labour won the general election in 2024.
The other main leadership contender with regular coverage in the media, Andy Burnham, is the Greater Manchester Mayor and a key figure on the left, but he is not in parliament.
Burnham would be at a severe disadvantage in a leadership contest if Streeting moved quickly, before any MP could volunteer to give up his or her seat in the House of Commons so Burnham could run at a by-election.
Labour rules state that a challenger must gain support from 20 per cent of the parliamentary party to trigger a challenge. The party has 403 members in the House of Commons, which means Streeting needs 81 to back him in a formal letter to the general secretary of the party, Hollie Ridley, an ally of Starmer. This would trigger an election for the leadership among thousands of party members.
With each side preparing for an all-out contest, Starmer’s office gave a cautious answer when The Times asked if he believed ministers would still be in their jobs at the end of the week.
“The prime minister has full confidence in his cabinet,” a spokesperson told the newspaper. This was reported as an expression of confidence in Streeting.
The Telegraph of London reported on its front page on May 2 that Streeting already had more than 80 behind him and was “primed to challenge” Starmer, but the contest has moved slowly since the rebuff at the May 7 elections.
On Wednesday in London (late on Wednesday night, AEST) several media outlets reported that Streeting would challenge Starmer the next day.
Despite months of speculation, Streeting has made no public declaration about his intentions or his agenda if he were to become leader. His allies have instead briefed the media to talk up his support, which remains untested.
Starmer’s supporters have tried to fend off a challenge by issuing a letter of support backed by 110 MPs, while the prime minister has promoted allies to replace four junior ministers who quit on Wednesday and appear to be aligned with Streeting.
Burnham’s supporters have expressed hope for looser fiscal rules to allow more spending, but financial markets are sending a strong signal about investor concerns at government borrowing and political instability.
The yield on a 10-year UK government bond eased a little to 5.07 per cent on Wednesday afternoon (about 3am Thursday AEST). This is a broad measure of the government’s borrowing costs on its public debt, and it has risen from about 4.7 per cent one year ago.
The government’s public sector net debt is about £2.8 trillion (about $5.2 trillion) and represents 94 per cent of GDP.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.
