(Alamy)
3 min read
Wes Streeting is set to leave government today, according to allies, and launch a campaign for Number 10 as the Labour Party plunges into civil war.
Streeting, the health secretary, is scrambling to find the required 81 MPs to mount a leadership challenge against the prime minister. It will likely set off a three-way contest between Streeting, Keir Starmer and one of Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband or Andy Burnham – if the latter can find a seat and win a by-election.
The health secretary is expected to resign this afternoon and plot the next steps to fight the Prime Minister. Streeting’s supporters have been praising his talents and urging Starmer to step aside and set out a timetable for his departure.
Chris Curtis, Labour MP for Milton Keynes North, and a Streeting ally, said the health secretary was a “generational talent”. He added on Thursday morning that he would be announcing his preferred contender to replace the Prime Minister this afternoon.
Meanwhile, a junior minister and Streeting ally called for Starmer to step down and set out a departure timetable in a private meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington, told the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure during a meeting with ministers, PoliticsHome revealed. Starmer told the meeting that if there was a challenge, the NEC would set out an appropriate timetable.
Angela Rayner’s position was strengthened this morning after she was cleared in an investigation over whether she deliberately avoided paying stamp duty tax, making it easier for her to launch a leadership bid.
The former housing secretary and deputy prime minister told The Guardian the probe into whether she paid the correct amount of tax on her flat in Hove had “clipped her wings”.
Allies of Rayner have been quick to back her and claim she has been exonerated. Chris Webb, Labour MP for Blackpool North, who has known Rayner for two decades, said she had “always been a woman of integrity, honesty, and decency.”
It is understood that Rayner’s preferred outcome, however, would be backing Burnham in a potential leadership contest. She told a union conference this week that it was a mistake to block the Manchester mayor from running for Parliament in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Burnham is finding it more difficult to pin down a seat and persuade a sitting MP to step down so he can run for it.
Allies of the Manchester mayor told PoliticsHome the seat he has found is in Greater Manchester and are confident of winning it. But several MPs in the region have denied stepping aside for the so-called King of the North.
They include Afzal Khan, MP for Manchester Rusholme; Connor Rand, MP for Altrincham and Sale West; Phil Brickell, MP for Bolton West; Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield; and Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Middleton South.
“How many MPs has Burnham humiliated by suggesting they might stand down now? 8? 9?,” one Burnham critic told PoliticsHome.
“Afzal, Carden, Dowd, Nichols, Rimmer, Simons, Barker – now Smith. Plus the nonsense with Lewis. It’s half an alphabet.”
Burnham pulled out of a regular radio slot with BBC Manchester at 10am as speculation about his future continues.
PoliticsHome revealed he was in London on Tuesday to hold meetings with MPs. Burnham is said to have met with Rayner and Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton.