Wes Streeting indicated he is prepared to trigger a British Labour leadership contest as early as next week as he urged Keir Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure if Andy Burnham wins this week’s Makerfield by-election.
The former health secretary insisted he has the backing of the 80 MPs required to stand in a contest as he accused Starmer of not listening to the party or his Cabinet in a series of public appearances on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister said he would prove his rivals wrong and “carry on with what I was elected to do” and “bring back the change that people desperately need” as he fights for his political future.
Streeting said he wanted Starmer to reflect over the weekend and make a decision to leave “on his own terms” after the June 18th vote which could see Burnham return to Westminster to challenge the British Prime Minister.
But pressed on whether he would trigger a contest if Starmer stayed put, as the Prime Minister has made clear he wants to, the ex-Cabinet minister told BBC Newsnight: “We can’t carry on with this uncertainty and paralysis, and there will need to be a contest, and I’d be prepared to do that.”
On how soon he would be willing to mount a challenge, Streeting said he did not want to “get into, ‘is it Monday, is it Tuesday’”, but that Starmer should be given “space over the weekend” to consider his position.
Asked if he would challenge Starmer if the Greater Manchester Mayor does not win the Makerfield by-election, he told LBC’s Andrew Marr show: “Yes, I believe we need a change of leadership and if Andy Burnham isn’t back, I still believe we need that change of leadership.”
Criticising the British Prime Minister, Streeting told Sky News’ The Cathy Newman Show: “I don’t think he’s listening to his former defence secretary, I don’t think he’s listening to military chiefs, I don’t think he’s listening to our Nato allies.
“In terms of the Labour Party, I don’t think he’s listening to his Cabinet, I don’t think he’s listening to the parliamentary party and I don’t think he’s listening to voters, who only in May sent the Labour Party that extremely humbling message at the ballot box.”
Speaking to reporters earlier at a press conference in central London where he outlined his economic vision, the senior Labour figure said: “There is a huge amount of talent on the front bench and the back bench of the parliamentary Labour Party.
“It isn’t used nearly well enough, and the divides between Labour’s different tribes are often overstated.
“I think we all have a shared sense of what’s wrong. I think we have different views about how to put it right, but at the end of it, we need to come together.”
Streeting’s diagnosis is that Labour is suffering from three problems at the moment: with leadership, with policy, and with culture.
He continued: “I would hope that after Thursday’s by-election, when the results are in, and I very much hope Andy Burnham wins – I was there yesterday campaigning for him again – when the results are in, I hope the Prime Minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable.
“I think that would be a better way forward for everyone, and would enable that better culture that we aspire to.”
Meanwhile, former British deputy prime minister Angela Rayner heaped praise on Burnham’s by-election campaign, saying he was winning over voters with a “new type of politics” in an interview with the Mirror.
She sidestepped questions on whether she would back the Greater Manchester Mayor but said it was “hard to escape the feeling that the public have had towards Keir”.
Asked if it was too late to achieve the change needed under Starmer’s leadership, she said: “I don’t think it’s too late for the Labour Party to deliver that, and that’s a different question.
“I know I’m not answering your question direct. I think that it’s hard to escape the feeling that the public have had towards Keir.”
The British Prime Minister was asked about threats to his leadership by reporters as he attended the G7 summit in France.
“So very many times on my political journey, people have said to me it’s not possible,” he said.
“They said it’s not possible to turn the Labour Party around. It’s not possible to win an election.
“It’s not possible if you do win election, to invest in your public services and stabilise the economy – wrong every time, and that’s why I intend not to walk away from this, but to carry on with what I was elected to do, which is to serve this country, bring back the change that people desperately need in their lives.”
Burnham is the favourite to win the by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency this week, multiple opinion polls have suggested.
His nearest challenger is Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, though Nigel Farage’s political outfit is worried about losing voters to Restore Britain, a party which positions itself as more hardline than Reform on migration and other issues.