Wes Streeting plans to resign and mount leadership challenge, allies say
Source: The Guardian
Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer’s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.
Downing Street insiders had suggested Streeting did not yet have the required support from 81 MPs, which is needed to formally launch a leadership bid, after the prime minister issued a “put up or shut up” ultimatum to his cabinet.
A source close to the health secretary told the Guardian on Wednesday that he was planning to resign on Thursday and launch a leadership bid. The idea that Starmer had seen off a putsch was “laughable”, they added.
“No one has the numbers till the bell is struck, even canvassing isn’t real, people need certainty before they write their name down. But he thinks he’s got the numbers,” they said.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/13/wes-streeting-plans-to-resign-and-mount-leadership-challenge-allies-say
I haven't been able to work out why Streeting has been pushed so much as a possible challenger - and thus PM. He's been Health Secretary in this government, and shadowed that position before that, which meant a fair amount of media visibility with the doctors' strikes. But I've never heard anyone say "oooh, that Wes Streeting, he'd be good as PM".
One of Starmer's problems has been appointing Mandelson as US ambassador; but Streeting was said to have been an ally of Mandelson (from whom he then ran away), so it's no as if he looks good in that disaster. But since he's not that impressive, he may be thinking "challenge Starmer now, while Burnham's still outside parliament, and Rayner hasn't sorted her tax problems".