No coronation for Streeting

It’s not clear what a “good” version of that meeting would have looked like, but whatever happened evidently wasn’t it: Streeting was inside Number 10 for just 17 minutes, before leaving without a word to the journalists outside.

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By 11am, just a few minutes before the state opening kicked off in earnest, The Times was reporting that Wes Streeting would resign on Thursday, presumably in an attempt to set off a formal challenge of Starmer’s leadership. Streeting might technically be keeping to the letter of a truce agreement, but it has evidently been trampled in every practical sense.

This can’t be how Streeting had planned to launch his leadership bid. He has been in the headlines for months as a possible successor to Starmer, but appeared to have nothing in the way of a plan to actually take over. The trouble for the health secretary is that the numbers simply aren’t on his side.

Streeting probably has the ability to get 81 nominations to launch a leadership challenge against Starmer. The trouble is what comes next: Streeting couldn’t secure support from enough MPs to win without an election, and he would be defeated by almost any other candidate should Labour’s members get a chance to choose the next leader.

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There is a caricature of Streeting that is widely shared among Labour’s members and left-wingers more broadly. To them, Streeting is a soulless, ambitious careerist – willing to say almost anything to advance his prospects, and bought up by his donors, including private health companies. 

The most visceral dislike of him is reserved for his supposed transphobia, owing to his decision to cut off access to puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care for minors, in the wake of the Cass Review.

The reality of Streeting is much more complicated, though not necessarily in ways that help him electorally. Streeting would probably be much more popular among the Labour selectorate if he was the empty vessel his detractors believe him to be. In reality, much like Tony Blair, he is a politician of deep conviction – just not necessarily ones that align with the rest of the Labour Party.

Streeting is an openly gay man – he would be the first openly gay prime minister if he won a leadership election – but he is also a devout practising Christian, and his religion informs his politics. 

On social issues, Streeting’s politics are more aligned with those of European Christian Social Democrats than Labour’s much more liberal base – but as a gay man, he gets little credit for that from Blue Labour types. His politics are further complicated because he is economically to the right of the party, aligning roughly with Labour’s dwindling band of remaining Blairites. 

When it comes to popularity contests among Labour MPs and members, that’s not a winning combination. Streeting’s decision to stick with it – rather than going on an ideological safari like Starmer’s – could easily be enough to cost him the leadership.

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Streeting similarly suffers on the personal front. Behind the scenes, he has an unusually good reputation among researchers and interns as a decent, thoughtful boss (though reviews from Department of Health civil servants are more mixed). 

His public image, though, is patchy: while Streeting is a polished and talented media performer, it often comes across as if from another era. Modern politics rewards politicians who come across as authentic – Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, and even Nigel Farage perform well on that front. Streeting’s slick public performances look like the result of good media training, a relic of the Blairite era.

Streeting might not be the pantomime villain his adversaries see, but his particular brand of politics and package of talents aren’t well suited to winning a leadership contest in 2026. This might explain Streeting’s repeated hesitation to actually launch a challenge against Starmer: it will be an extremely difficult contest for him to win.

Given a choice between Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, the latter would likely win by a landslide among both Labour MPs and the party’s members. Streeting, if he has enough MPs to launch a challenge, can head Burnham off at the pass – but might then lose against Starmer, or against whichever MP the soft-left rallied around to stop him.

The reality is that the odds are heavily stacked against Streeting, but they are only likely to get worse for him the longer he waits. Victory might be a distant prospect in a challenge now, but it is likely unreachable if he waits a few months. 

If Streeting does finally pull the trigger on Thursday, he must surely know that he is probably facing defeat. But perhaps he’s decided that a long shot now is better than no shot at all. At least this way, he would be able to say he’d tried.