British Health Secretary Resigns, Calls for Broad Leadership Contest

British Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from the government on May 14, saying that he had lost confidence in British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

In his resignation letter published on X, Streeting said Starmer had created a “vacuum” where the country needed a “vision” and urged him to listen to his fellow lawmakers.

“Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords,” Streeting wrote. “You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenchers, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”

He said it is now “clear that [Starmer] will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election.”

The traditional pomp and pageantry associated with the State Opening of Parliament was overshadowed on May 13 by the growing political intrigue around Streeting.

Although more than 100 members of Parliament signed a letter saying that it was “no time for a leadership contest,” about 90 others said Starmer should stand down or at least set out a timetable for his departure.

That is not enough to trigger a leadership contest, as no candidate has issued a challenge to the prime minister. Under Labour Party rules, one-fifth of its lawmakers in the House of Commons, or 81 members, must publicly give their backing to a single candidate for a leadership election to take place.

Streeting said in his letter that there should now be a leadership contest.

“It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates,” he wrote. “I support that approach, and I hope that you will facilitate this.”

‘Months of Peacocking’

Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, told lawmakers that Starmer must resign.

“It is absolutely preposterous that the government are here laying out a program as their ministers are resigning and a large proportion of the Labour Party is saying that the prime minister needs to go,” she said, as they began a debate over the government’s agenda for the coming year in Parliament.

Badenoch said she felt “sorry for the poor Labour [members of Parliament] who will now be subjected to months of peacocking by leadership candidates while the country is not being governed.”

Starmer’s leadership is under attack following the huge losses his center-left Labour Party suffered in local and regional elections last week, while Member of Parliament Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK Party made sweeping gains. The Conservatives also did poorly, reflecting national discontent with both main traditional parties.

If those local results were replicated in a national election, Labour would be overwhelmingly defeated. The party swept to power in July 2024, winning the general election by a landslide and ejecting the Conservatives from power after 14 years.

The next general election must be held by August 2029, according to the Institute for Government, although a snap general election can be called at any time by the prime minister.

Lawmakers can also trigger a general election if they pass a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, although with a large Labour majority in the House of Commons, this is considered unlikely to happen.

Starmer, 63, entered politics in 2015, having previously been the UK’s most senior prosecution lawyer, as head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

His administration has been criticized over a series of policy U-turns, as well as a cost-of-living crisis, a stagnant economy, and continued high rates of both legal and illegal immigration.

The prime minister’s judgment has been called into question over his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the United States despite his known ties to the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Starmer has made it clear that he has no imminent plans to stand down and will fight any leadership challenge. He is publicly backed by the majority of his Cabinet, including top ministers.

Speaking to the BBC, his finance minister, Rachel Reeves, warned lawmakers not to “plunge the country into chaos,” just as it was announced that the economy unexpectedly grew in March.

‘Significant Moment’

The prime minister told lawmakers on May 13 to lay out forthcoming legislation and said he welcomed “the radical agenda of this Labour Government that will tear down the status quo that has failed working people and build a stronger, fairer Britain.”

He jokingly thanked Badenoch for her “warm” contribution, saying, “In difficult days, her input is always a ray of sunshine.”

On the morning of May 14, the Guardian newspaper revealed that Starmer’s former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, had been cleared by authorities of deliberate wrongdoing following an investigation into her tax affairs that forced her out of government.

The investigation by the tax office had been an impediment to her challenging Starmer.

“I’ve said to [Starmer] this is a really significant moment for our party and the country,” she told the Guardian.

“The pace of change hasn’t been enough for voters to see, and also mistakes have really blown us off course and made voters doubt us.”

She also said that Starmer should “reflect on” whether to resign.

Rayner, considered further to the left than Starmer, hinted that she could enter a leadership challenge.

“I’ll play my part in doing everything we possibly can to deliver the change, because it’s not a personal ambition, I know the difference it makes,” she said.

One of those tipped as a successor to Starmer, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, cannot launch a challenge as he is not a member of the House of Commons. He would first need a sitting member of Parliament to stand down, then be selected as Labour’s candidate and win the seat, an uncertain process that could take months.

Labour Party Membership Polling Favors Rayner

If Starmer is forced out, the new ​leader would be the UK’s seventh ⁠prime minister in the past decade, since the Brexit vote to leave the European Union in 2016. A general election is not required if the ruling party changes leader.

A Survation poll of party members for LabourList showed that Starmer would win a head-to-head contest against Streeting but would lose in a direct contest against Rayner, Burnham, or former Labour leader and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who led the party to an election defeat by the Conservatives in 2015.

The candidates favored by the party membership are all regarded as being to the left of Starmer. Polling found that 57 percent of party members believe that there should be a change of leader.