Wes Streeting quits cabinet and calls on Starmer to resign

Wes Streeting has quit as health secretary and called on Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister, saying it would have been “dishonourable” to remain in post and that there should now be a contest for the Labour leadership.

But Streeting, who is on the party’s right, will not immediately launch a challenge and said he wanted to see a leadership contest with a broad range of candidates – a suggestion that the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, could fight in the contest.

Streeting had long been gathering support for a challenge and has spent the week asking MPs to nominate him. Allies have consistently said he did not want to challenge Starmer directly but hoped to be a candidate in a leadership contest if Starmer resigned.

The fact he is not challenging Starmer immediately suggests he does not have the requisite 81 MPs to mount a challenge directly.

A challenge would be likely to prompt bids from other potential candidates including the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband, the energy secretary.

Burnham would need to win a Westminster seat in a byelection to stand as a leadership candidate and was said by allies to have several lined up, though at least two have failed to materialise.

In his resignation letter, Streeting criticised Starmer’s determination to stay, saying: “Your heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

He said: “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. 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 when they met on Tuesday that he had lost confidence in him – a meeting that lasted just 15 minutes and where Starmer told Streeting he would fight any challenge.

Close ministerial allies of Streeting, 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 Streeting’s former ministerial aide Joe Morris, as well as the backbenchers Chris Curtis, Alan Gemmel and Jas Athwal, have also called for Starmer to go.

If he does not resign, Starmer would automatically be on the ballot paper in any leadership contest, and his allies have made it clear 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.

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