Britain’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigns from government

Britain’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting has resigned from the ruling Labour government, deepening a crisis that threatens to topple Prime Minister Keir Starmer after less than two years in office.

Hours after Streeting’s announcement on Thursday, Labour lawmaker Josh Simons said he would resign from ⁠his seat in parliament in a move designed to give Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham a ⁠chance to return to parliament and challenge Starmer.

The prime minister is under growing pressure to step down following disastrous results in last week’s local elections.

Streeting posted on X on Thursday that he no longer had “confidence” in Starmer’s leadership, and there was “no doubt” that the party’s unpopularity was a “major and common factor in our defeat across England, Scotland and Wales”.

“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,” the 43-year-old said.

“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.”

Streeting’s announcement fell short of triggering a formal leadership contest against Starmer, but piles pressure on the British leader, who has so far weathered a drip-feed of demands for his resignation.

Streeting did not say whether he had gained the support of 81 MPs needed to trigger a contest.

So far, four junior ministers have resigned, including Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, and more than 80 MPs have urged Starmer to quit or set out a roadmap for his departure.

However, no one has formally challenged the prime minister for his position.

Support for Burnam and Rayner

Also posting on X on Thursday, lawmaker Simons wrote: “Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and ‌will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter Parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying ⁠out for.”

Simons cannot transfer the seat to Burnham. ⁠Instead, a special election would have to be held to replace ⁠him, in which other parties ⁠can also compete.

After Simons gave up his seat, Burnham announced that he would request permission to stand in a by-election ⁠in the region.

“I can confirm that I will be requesting the permission of the NEC to stand in the Makerfield by-election,” Burnham said on X.

“There is ⁠only so much that ⁠can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national ⁠level if everyday life is to be made ⁠more affordable again. This is ⁠why I now seek people’s support to return to Parliament: to bring the change ‌we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK ‌and ‌make politics work properly for people.”

While Streeting is popular on the right of the Labour Party, he is disliked by the left-wing supporters who would prefer either Burnham or Angela Rayner as leader.

On Thursday, Rayner announced that she had been “cleared” by tax authorities of any wrongdoing after she was forced to resign from the Cabinet after underpaying property tax. The tax authorities’ decision could pave the way for her to stand in any potential leadership contest.

Rayner stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign, but said voters were frustrated with the way the government was being run.

Other potential challengers include former Labour leader Ed Miliband.

‘Squabbling amongst each other’

⁠In a letter on Thursday, Starmer told Streeting he was sorry he had ‌stepped down from his role.

“I am truly sorry you will no longer be sat at the Cabinet table helping to transform ⁠our National Health ⁠Service,” Starmer wrote to the former minister. “As part of that we must deliver on ⁠all of the promises we made ⁠to the country, ⁠including our promise to turn the page on the chaos that ‌was roundly rejected by the British people at ‌the last ‌general election.”

Starmer’s spokesman reiterated earlier on Thursday that the prime minister was not going anywhere.

He “is purely focused on governing. He is getting on with the job of doing just that,” the spokesman told reporters.

Voters last week expressed their dismay with Starmer’s 22 months in power, with huge local election gains at Labour’s expense for the right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party and the left-wing Greens.

The Labour Party lost control of the devolved Welsh parliament for the first time, and failed to make up ground on the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the parliament in Edinburgh.

Starmer has vowed to fight any contest, pledging on Monday to do better and prove his doubters “wrong”.

He has been backed by several senior Cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, who urged colleagues on Thursday not to put the economy “at risk” by “plunging the country into chaos” with a leadership challenge.

The US and Israel’s war on Iran is already having a destabilising effect as rising fuel prices are heavily “impacting a range of industries here in Britain,” said Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from London.

“The worry among some people in the Labour Party is that if politicians and the government are seen as squabbling amongst each other, and not really solving these really fundamental problems that the country is facing”, then this could lead to calls for a general election, said Veselinovic.

This would be disastrous for Labour due to their low polling numbers and poor results from the recent local elections, she added.