london —
Wes Streeting resigned as UK Health Secretary on Thursday, saying he had “lost faith” in Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership and it would be “disgraceful and unprincipled” to remain in government.
The move comes after several days of speculation about whether Mr Streeting will formally challenge Mr Starmer’s leadership of the Labor Party. Mr Streeting announced his resignation from the government in a letter to the prime minister, but did not explicitly say he would launch a leadership contest.
To start the contest, Streeting needs the support of one-fifth of Labour’s MPs, currently 81 MPs.
Mr Starmer has faced a revolt within the Labor Party since last week’s disastrous defeats in local elections in England and the Scottish and Welsh parliaments, with nearly 90 Labor MPs publicly calling for his resignation. Mr Street became the first MP under Starmer to resign since the rebellion began.
Mr Streeting said in his letter that last week’s elections had brought nationalists to power “in every corner” of Britain, pointing to the success of Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party in England and nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, which he said could threaten to divide the country. He cited Mr Starmer’s failings, saying progressive voters had “lost faith” in the Labor Party and “leaving this country without knowing who we are or what we really stand for”.
“Where there is a need for vision there is a vacuum. Where there is a need for direction there is a drift,” he said.
Mr Street insisted it was clear Mr Starmer would not lead Labor at the next general election, due in 2029. “I want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not one about individuals or petty factions. It needs to be broad-based and we need candidates from the best possible field.”
Downing Street did not immediately react to Mr Street’s resignation. But the company has insisted all week that Starmer has no intention of resigning. In a speech on Monday, Starmer vowed to remain prime minister, saying a change in leadership would send Britain back into the “chaos” that flourished under the Conservative Party, which ousted two leaders in the two years before Starmer came to power in a landslide in 2024.
To Mr Streeting’s allies, he is one of the best communicators in British politics, lending clarity and deftness to Starmer’s government, which has struggled to tell Britain a convincing story about the direction Labor is heading. To critics, he is overtly ambitious and unprincipled, lacking any obvious appeal beyond the world of Westminster. In the last general election, Mr Streeting held on to his parliamentary seat by just 528 votes.
As health secretary, Mr Streeting was tasked with overhauling Britain’s strained National Health Service (NHS), which has long been an ever-increasing share of gross domestic product (GDP).
His resignation comes at the same time government data was released on Thursday showing the NHS has improved under his leadership. NHS waiting lists fell by 110,000 people in March, the biggest monthly fall since 2008 outside of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Streeting said the data meant the government was “on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history”.
Perhaps encouraged by this success, Mr Streeting’s resignation could signal the race to replace Mr Starmer as Labor leader and prime minister. Earlier Thursday, former Deputy Premier Angela Reiner announced that she had resolved a dispute with authorities over her failure to pay enough property taxes. The scandal led to his resignation in September. Neither Mr Streeting nor Mr Rayner has sparked a leadership contest, but both are seen as potential rivals to Mr Starmer.
Unlike Rayner, Streeting comes from the right wing of the Labor Party. Much of his life has been spent in political activity. First as president of the National Union of Students, then as a local councillor, and now as councilor for an east London borough near the council estate where he grew up.
Mr Street made no secret of his admiration for Tony Blair’s government, which he served as prime minister when he was a student at Cambridge University. Mr Street briefly left the Labor Party because of Mr Blair’s support for the Iraq War, but is said to have incorporated “Blairism” into his mission to reform the NHS.
Any hopes of leadership could be clouded by Mr Streeting’s friendship with Peter Mandelson, the veteran Labor politician who was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mr Starmer has been troubled for months over the decision to appoint Mr Mandelson, despite his well-known ties to Mr Epstein. His street activities may also be tainted by his association with Mandelson.
