Here are the key points from Wes Streeting ’s resignation letter. And “resignation letter” is crucial; overshadowing the news that he has quit cabinet is the second revelation in the letter – that he is not launching a leadership bid. at least now. This will be seen as confirmation. he does not have the 80 MP backers he would need to force a contest.
Streeting says he is resigning. he wants Labour to have a leadership contest with “the best possible field of candidates”. This implies that he wants Andy Burnham to be allowed to stand as a candidate,. that he does not favour an immediate contest. He does not suggest a timetable for when he would like to see a contest happen,. the implication is ‘not now, but reasonably soon, after Burnham has had the chance to fight a byelection’. He tells Keir Starmer:
double quotation mark It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour party into the next general election. 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. [See 9.45am.] 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.
Serving as your secretary of state for health. social care has been the greatest joy of my life and, regardless of our differences this week, I remain truly grateful to you for the opportunity to serve and I am deeply saddened to be leaving government in this way.
Streeting does not announce a leadership challenge now – although he implies he wants to be a candidate when a contest does happen.
He accuses Starmer of failing to offer proper leadership,. of being at least in part responsible for the scale of Labour losses in the elections last week. He says:
double quotation mark There is no doubt that the unpopularity of this government was a major. common factor in our defeats across England, Scotland and Wales. Good Labour people lost through no fault of their own. There are many reasons we could point to: from individual mistakes on policy like the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the ‘island of strangers’ speech. all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for.
You have many great strengths that I admire. You led our party to a victory few thought possible in 2024. I was proud to fight alongside you in the trenches of that campaign. You have shown courage. statesmanship on the world stage – not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran.
But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.
He says he is resigning because he thinks it would have been “dishonourable. unprincipled” to stay in post having lost confidence in Starmer. He says:
double quotation mark These are all good reasons for me to remain in post, but as you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable. unprincipled to do so.
He says the Labour defeats were unprecedented,. that the prospect of Reform UK winning the next election is “a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great”. He says:
double quotation mark Last week’s election results were unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat. the consequences of that failure. For the first time in our country’s history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom – including a dangerous English nationalism represented by Nigel Farage. Reform UK. This represents both an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, but Reform UK also represent a threat to the values. ideals that have made this country great. Progressives across our country understand this threat. our responsibility to confront it, but they are increasingly losing faith that the Labour party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.
He says Labour needs to offer “a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering”. He says:
double quotation mark As a member of your government, I know better than most that governing is hard. It should be, because it matters. There are enormous challenges facing this country. For the first time in our history the next generation faces a worse inheritance than the last. We have wars raging in Europe and the Middle East that are making our challenges harder, not easier. We are in the foothills of a technological industrial revolution. has huge implications for every aspect of our lives – not least the future of work. It is not clear whether democracy or tyranny will define the 21st century. After the financial crisis, austerity, the disaster of Brexit, Liz Truss, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine. now the war in Iran, the country needs to believe again that things can be better than this and that politics is part of the answer, not the source of the problem. These are big challenges that require a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering.
He says the NHS England performance figues out today (see 10.42am ) show that he has a record of achievement. He says:
double quotation mark I’ve delivered against the ambitious targets you set for me when I became your secretary of state for health. social care. Today’s figures confirm that we surpassed our waiting times target despite strikes,. that waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March – the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 – meaning that we are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.
Nigel Farage bought a £1.4m property in cash shortly after receiving a £5m personal gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, Ben Quinn. Rowena Mason report.
Farage has also given an interview to the Sun’s Harry Cole. In the past Farage has always defended the £5m donation he received from Harborne on the grounds. it was a personal gift to pay for his security for the rest of his life. Speaking to Cole, Farage gave a slightly different explanation, describing it as a reward for his Brexit campaign.
When it was put to him that getting a £5m gift was unusual, Farage replied:
double quotation mark It’s very unusual for someone to give up 27 years of their life to campaign for something. And this was given to me on an unconditional basis, completely unconditional basis. But frankly, it was given as a reward for campaigning for Brexit for 27 years.
The Labour MP Alan Gemmell was also on the World at One. He is a leading Wes Streeting supporter,. he was interviewed on the programme in effect as a quasi spokesperson for the campaign.
He claimed Streeting did have the support of 81 Labour MPs (enough to launch a leadership challenge). He said:
double quotation mark [Streeting] has the support of the right number, of more than 81 MPs in the party.
But he’s taken a principled decision today not to trigger that contest … It’s clear in conversations with MPs. with the unions that the party wants a discussion, a battle of ideas, an open contest, a broad contest for the direction that we should take and how we fix the problems that we’re in.
On the same programme. Stephen Bush, the FT commentator, said that Streeting does have more than 80 Labour MPs who would like to see him become leader. But he pointed out that some of those are in government,. reluctant to start a process that could lead to them leaving their jobs.
To nominate Streeting in a leadership contest, a minister would have to disclose their name to the party,. would have to resign.
The former minister Catherine West kicked off the Labour leadership speculation when she announced on Saturday that. if no cabinet minister launched a challenge, she would try to stand as a candidate herself.
Since then she has rather changed her tune. On Monday she said she was not standing as a candidate,. was urging Labour MPs to back calls for a contest.
Today. in an interview on the World at One, West said that she would not rule out voting for Keir Starmer herself. She said:
double quotation mark What I would like to see is the honest conversation. people coming forward, including the prime minister if he is going to be a candidate in this particular race.
Because, of course, many of us like Keir very much as a person. He has got excellent credentials on the international stage. he could well win a competition if he put his name forward.
If Keir Starmer decides he has got the bottle. he can come and fight – fight as if he is fighting for the working people of this country – then he could beat the others, because he is a very bright man.
Here is some commentary on the Wes Streeting letter from political journalists.
From my colleague Jessica Elgot
double quotation mark This letter from Wes Streeting reads awfully like the beginnings of an Andy Burnham deal.. “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.”
From Robert Shrimsley at the FT
double quotation mark So this is quite a cute way out. He does the brave thing but positions it as a move for the whole party by a) delaying the collection of names (which he may not have). b) saying the contest must wait for Andy.
From Joe Pike at the BBC
double quotation mark The Streeting strategy now seems to be getting his supporters to pile pressure on the PM to quit,. avoiding a vote of Labour MPs on whether to challenge Keir Starmer.
“We wait and see what Keir does”, says one senior ally of the former health secretary. “There’s still a chance Keir goes of his own accord and sets a timetable and ends this chaos.”
Supporters of Wes Streeting claim he has the 81 MPs needed to mount a leadership challenge. They also suggest more ministers could resign from government later today, although not necessarily at cabinet level.
From Alex Wickham at Bloomberg
double quotation mark One thing is clear: Wes Streeting has accepted he is unable to trigger a contest now. We know he originally wanted a ‘swift’ contest because that’s what his allies said in their statements. Now he’s backed down and called for an orderly transition. So it’s over to Andy Burnham.
From Adam Bienkov at Byline Times
double quotation mark Streeting’s letter. the language about wanting a “broad” contest suggests he’s opening the door to a deal with Burnham.
He surely knows he can’t win the contest outright himself (see today’s Labourlist polling ). could still position himself for a top job
From Charlie Cooper at Politico
double quotation mark Streeting will know his odds of winning any contest against soft left are low But his letter appears (skilfully) written with an eye on senior Cabinet job in any future Burnham/Rayner govt Opened door to wide contest. Sympathised with left’s concerns eg. immigration rhetoric
From Dan Hodges from the Mail on Sunday
double quotation mark People totally missing the point about Streeting’s letter. The issue of whether he has the numbers is no longer relevant. All that matters now is all the main candidates, the bulk of the PLP, 2/3rds of the cabinet. the Trade Unions all agree Starmer has to set out a timetable for his departure leading up to September. That’s broken the logjam.
This is from Jonathan Brash, the Labour MP for Hartlepool, on Wes Streeting’s letter. Brash was one of the MPs calling for Keir Starmer to quit even before the May elections.
double quotation mark The call for a broad contest with the best possible field of candidates is absolutely right from @wesstreeting. The Prime Minister should now do the right thing for the country and set a timetable.
Wes Streeting’s letter today makes it a lot less likely. there will a Labour leadership contest soon with Keir Starmer as a candidate. Streeting seems to be working on the assumption. at some point in the future there will be a contest that won’t feature Starmer. (See 1.26pm.)
So polling by LabourList published a bit earlier may be less relevant than it was this morning. But it is still quite interesting. It is a poll of Labour members. it suggests, in a head-to-head contest, Starmer would lose to Andy Burnham (easily) and would lose to Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband (by a narrow margin), but would beat all other potential candidates (including Streeting) quite easily.
One problem with polling like this is. Labour leadership contests normally don’t boil down to a head-to-head between two candidates. It is more likely that members would choose between several candidates and. as Jessica Elgot points out, the preferential voting system used might help Starmer because he would be lots of people’s second choice.
The Green party has issued this statement in response to Wes Streeting’s resignation. A Green spokesperson said:
double quotation mark If Labour thinks Wes Streeting is the answer. they obviously don’t know the question the country is asking.
Last week’s elections show the country is crying out for a break from the failed status quo. Keir Starmer has been unable. unwilling to break with an economic model that has fuelled the affordability crisis, and this is why we have said he must go.
Wes Streeting would be more of the same, but even worse, a factional. divisive politician, a close ally of Peter Mandelson, who favours an economy even more tilted to the wealthy, and whose record as health secretary is more privatisation and more personal donations from private healthcare.
This reads like a statement drafted in anticipation of Streeting launching a leadership challenge which nobody could be bothered to re-write after it emerged that he’s not doing that (at least today – see 1.32pm.) What we’ve learned this afternoon is that Labour doesn’t think Streeting is the answer; if they did, he would have the MP backer numbers. would be launching a leadership bid.
Here is more on what Wes Streeting says in his resignation letter on his record as health secretary. He says:
double quotation mark The only question. matters in government is whether we leave our successors a better situation than we inherited. Ambulance response times for heart attacks and strokes are now the fastest in five years. A&E waiting times are improving, with four-hour waiting figures also the best in five years. We’ve recruited 2,000 more GPs. satisfaction has risen from 60 per cent to 74.5 per cent since we came to office. We hit our target of recruiting 8,500 mental health staff three years early. We’ve achieved this at the same as balancing the books for the first time in nine years. smashing the 2 per cent NHS productivity target by achieving 2.8 per cent, which means the investment we’re putting in goes further and that the public can have greater confidence that their money is being well-spent.
None of this would have been achieved without the brilliant leadership team of ministers, officials,. special advisers we have established in the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS – superbly led by Samantha Jones and Sir Jim Mackey, who has been a knight in shining armour and a brilliant leader of 1.5 million staff upon whom all this success depends.
The National Health Service is the embodiment of all that is best about Britain and our values. Thanks to our Labour government, it is on the road to recovery: lots done, but so much more to do.
Here are the key points from Wes Streeting ’s resignation letter. And “resignation letter” is crucial; overshadowing the news that he has quit cabinet is the second revelation in the letter – that he is not launching a leadership bid. at least now. This will be seen as confirmation. he does not have the 80 MP backers he would need to force a contest.
Streeting says he is resigning. he wants Labour to have a leadership contest with “the best possible field of candidates”. This implies that he wants Andy Burnham to be allowed to stand as a candidate,. that he does not favour an immediate contest. He does not suggest a timetable for when he would like to see a contest happen,. the implication is ‘not now, but reasonably soon, after Burnham has had the chance to fight a byelection’. He tells Keir Starmer:
double quotation mark It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour party into the next general election. 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. [See 9.45am.] 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.
Serving as your secretary of state for health. social care has been the greatest joy of my life and, regardless of our differences this week, I remain truly grateful to you for the opportunity to serve and I am deeply saddened to be leaving government in this way.
Streeting does not announce a leadership challenge now – although he implies he wants to be a candidate when a contest does happen.
He accuses Starmer of failing to offer proper leadership,. of being at least in part responsible for the scale of Labour losses in the elections last week. He says:
double quotation mark There is no doubt that the unpopularity of this government was a major. common factor in our defeats across England, Scotland and Wales. Good Labour people lost through no fault of their own. There are many reasons we could point to: from individual mistakes on policy like the decision to cut the winter fuel allowance to the ‘island of strangers’ speech. all of which have left the country not knowing who we are or what we really stand for.
You have many great strengths that I admire. You led our party to a victory few thought possible in 2024. I was proud to fight alongside you in the trenches of that campaign. You have shown courage. statesmanship on the world stage – not least in keeping Britain out of the war in Iran.
But where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift. This was underscored by your speech on Monday. Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.
He says he is resigning because he thinks it would have been “dishonourable. unprincipled” to stay in post having lost confidence in Starmer. He says:
double quotation mark These are all good reasons for me to remain in post, but as you know from our conversation earlier this week, having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable. unprincipled to do so.
He says the Labour defeats were unprecedented,. that the prospect of Reform UK winning the next election is “a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great”. He says:
double quotation mark Last week’s election results were unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat. the consequences of that failure. For the first time in our country’s history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom – including a dangerous English nationalism represented by Nigel Farage. Reform UK. This represents both an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, but Reform UK also represent a threat to the values. ideals that have made this country great. Progressives across our country understand this threat. our responsibility to confront it, but they are increasingly losing faith that the Labour party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.
He says Labour needs to offer “a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering”. He says:
double quotation mark As a member of your government, I know better than most that governing is hard. It should be, because it matters. There are enormous challenges facing this country. For the first time in our history the next generation faces a worse inheritance than the last. We have wars raging in Europe and the Middle East that are making our challenges harder, not easier. We are in the foothills of a technological industrial revolution. has huge implications for every aspect of our lives – not least the future of work. It is not clear whether democracy or tyranny will define the 21st century. After the financial crisis, austerity, the disaster of Brexit, Liz Truss, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine. now the war in Iran, the country needs to believe again that things can be better than this and that politics is part of the answer, not the source of the problem. These are big challenges that require a bold vision and bigger solutions than we are offering.
He says the NHS England performance figues out today (see 10.42am ) show that he has a record of achievement. He says:
double quotation mark I’ve delivered against the ambitious targets you set for me when I became your secretary of state for health. social care. Today’s figures confirm that we surpassed our waiting times target despite strikes,. that waiting lists fell by 110,000 in March – the biggest monthly drop outside of Covid since 2008 – meaning that we are on track to achieve the fastest improvement in NHS waiting times in history.
Wes Streeting has resigned.
Here is Heather Stewart ’s explainer on the HMRC investigation into Angela Rayner’s stamp duty error.
It is worth clarifying the HMRC finding about Angela Rayner’s stamp duty error; her mistake was in the least serious category.
HMRC has three categories of error: errors made despite taking reasonable care; careless errors; and deliberate errors. (Within deliberate errors, there are two categories: deliberate and concealed; deliberate but not concealed.)
Rayner’s mistake was in the “despite taking reasonable care” category.
Speaking to ITV about the HMRC ruling, she said:
double quotation mark They’ve said that there wasn’t any wrongdoing. that I didn’t try to avoid paying tax or I wasn’t careless in the way in which I conducted myself at the time when I was in government.
double quotation mark Where the error was made despite taking reasonable care,. is adjusted under the error correction regime in the return for the period of discovery, we treat the person as having taken reasonable steps to inform us of the inaccuracy and no penalty will be due.
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