Former UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed that he will run for Labour Party leadership if a race is launched to succeed Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, calling for a "real contest" for the position, reports the Guardian.
Speaking at a conference organised by the Progress think tank on Saturday, Streeting said he would enter any possible leadership race. He outlined the view that the UK should establish a “new special relationship” with the European Union, hinting that he would like the country to rejoin the trading bloc in the future.
Streeting also used the speech to criticize, as he put it, Keir Starmer's "harsh" leadership style, which he claims has stifled creative policy thinking in the government.
The former health minister has questioned Labour's performance during its first two years in power, which he spent in cabinet, saying the party "came into government unprepared in too many areas and without a clear vision and direction".
Streeting described Starmer's proposed cut to winter heating allowance, one of the most unpopular policies of the government's term so far, as a "disaster" and said the party had not had a genuine debate about its direction since the Jeremy Corbyn era.
"The moral crisis of anti-Semitism in our party left little room for intellectual renewal or policy debate on the center-left. Then we had a dishonest leadership race, and then excessive caution in the opposition," he said.
"Interesting policy ideas couldn't be put forward because we were too afraid of what the Tories might say, so we didn't say anything. Instead of a willingness to question and test ideas, debate was seen as divisive and stifled."
He added: "We carried that culture into the government, with a harsh approach that saw backbench MPs reprimanded for interesting private parliamentary proposals that were not government policy – such as banning smartphones in schools."
"That's why we need a real competition in which all candidates can give their best. It has to be a battle of ideas, so that whoever wins comes out stronger."
Streeting said Britain should rejoin the EU, describing Brexit as a "catastrophic mistake", and suggested that a closer relationship with Europe would help "rebuild our economy and trade, and improve defences against the shared threats of Russian aggression and America First".
He also warned that Labour must not be “led away by the siren songs” that claim to win the next general election it should try to be “more Reform than Reform” or “more Green than Green”, and criticised the spread of misinformation online. He said the country had “decided to hand over the pen to the tech moguls of Silicon Valley to write our future. It is time to put the pen back”.
"What we have witnessed in our country in recent months is a kind of racism that we have not seen on our streets since the 1970s and 1980s," Streeting said. "Our flags are flying from flagpoles and overpasses not as a symbol of national pride, but as a symbol of division: a message that these flags belong to people who look like me, not people who look like our Mayor of London."
Speaking about the "Unite the Kingdom" march, organised by Tommy Robinson and held in London on the same day, Streeting also claimed that when a similar march was organised in 2025, "ministers were sent from 10 Downing Street with media instructions to explain the march, rather than condemn it".
Streeting's statement came a day after Labour's National Executive Committee approved Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to stand in the upcoming Makerfield by-election.
If Burnham returns to Westminster, many see him as Streeting's biggest rival for the leadership, although Streeting has said he will get involved in the campaign in Makerfield, stating that he will "go door to door day after day" to help Burnham get elected.
Streeting also said he would have more than enough support from Labour MPs in parliament, but that a leadership race conducted before Burnham could take part "would be without legitimacy." He stressed that the best thing for the country was "a real competition with the best candidates on the ground."
In a seemingly open invitation to debate with Bernam and others, Streeting said: "Change begins with discussion. There is no progress without it. That is why this week I have called for a battle of ideas, not personalities."
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