UK health secretary resigns in challenge to Starmer’s ‘heavy-handed’ leadership
British Health Secretary Wes Streeting handed in his resignation on Thursday, telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he has “lost confidence” in his “heavy-handed” leadership of the United Kingdom.
Streeting opened the letter by listing his accomplishments in office, but he concluded that staying in his post would be “dishonourable and unprincipled” while Starmer remains in power.
“Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift,” Streeting wrote. “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.”
Starmer has been under growing criticism since the Labour Party lost a slate of local elections. Reform U.K., which is growing increasingly popular in the country for its populist views, was one of the parties that overtook Labour politicians.
“Last week’s election results were unprecedented — both in terms of the scale of the defeat and the consequences of that failure,” Streeting said before warning of the “threat” that Reform U.K. poses.
“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 and Reform UK,” he added. “This represents both an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, but Reform UK also represent a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great.”
Over 90 Labour MPs out of 403 have called for Starmer’s resignation as he vows to remain prime minister.
After he refused to quit, Labour MP Jess Phillips resigned as safeguarding minister. Providing similar reasons as Streeting for her departure, Phillips said she was “not seeing the change I think I, and the country expect.” Also, Labour-Co-op MP Miatta Fahnbulleh resigned as junior minister this week.
A member of the Labour Party, Streeting leans toward the moderate wing that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair made popular during his tenure in the late 1990s and 2000s. Starmer shares a similar political outlook but has focused more on party unity compared to Streeting, who has been more combative in his rhetoric against right-wing populism.
At one point in his resignation letter, the Cabinet official complimented Starmer’s “strengths” in leading the Labour Party to victory in 2024 and continuing to keep “Britain out of the war in Iran.” But he said those aren’t good enough reasons for him to stay.
The newly resigned health secretary is speculated to be mounting a bid to replace Starmer. While his resignation appears to be the first step toward that possibility, a political editor for the Times said Streeting has decided against triggering a leadership election immediately.
“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and 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,” Streeting wrote. “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.”
Starmer has not responded to the latest resignation. He previously indicated that his exit won’t happen at the moment, though that could change.
“The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered,” the embattled Labour prime minister said at a meeting on Tuesday. “The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do.”
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