As the procession of ministers departed Downing Street following what was described as the most anti-climactic Cabinet meeting in recent memory, a handful chose to address the media. In a carefully coordinated strategy with Number 10, they pledged loyalty to their embattled leader.
Among the ministers who publicly backed Sir Keir Starmer were Business Secretary Peter Kyle and Science Secretary Liz Kendall. Their inclusion sent a clear signal to those still plotting to oust Starmer: hold your fire. Both Kyle and Kendall are allies of Health Secretary Wes Streeting, widely regarded as the chief schemer.
Streeting was one of the last ministers to leave Number 10, having failed, according to sources, to secure private talks with Starmer alongside several colleagues. The usually loquacious Streeting, who would attend the opening of a window if a TV camera were present, uncharacteristically ignored the press pack on Downing Street.
At the beginning of the meeting, Sir Keir Starmer—after a long dark night of the soul—dismissed any talk of his departure, declaring: 'The country expects us to get on with governing. That is what I am doing and what we must do as a Cabinet.'
A ministerial source told this publication: 'Starmer’s opening remarks were aimed directly at Streeting, who did not respond. Instead, he joined in the pre-planned discussion about the impact of the Iran war on the British economy as if nothing untoward politically was happening. It was surreal.'
Streeting, who belongs to the Blairite wing of the Labour Party, has been clear with anyone willing to listen that he is ready for a leadership contest. However, he now insists he will not trigger one—even though time is not on his side.
'Wes does not want to be seen as the assassin,' says a supporter. 'He can read a room. Starmer bought himself time. Everything for Wes is now on pause.'
The bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Labour leader, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, does not hold a Commons seat, disqualifying him from running, which plays into Streeting’s hands.
Many fear Streeting may have missed his moment altogether. They recall 1995 when then Prime Minister John Major resigned as Tory leader and called a leadership election to seek a renewed mandate. Defence Secretary Michael Portillo was seen as the main threat but chose not to stand in the first round, a decision seen as a 'bottled' opportunity, allowing Major to survive.
How quickly things change: on Monday night, Streeting was clearly orchestrating a putsch. First, his parliamentary private secretary (PPS) Joe Morris quit. Although Morris held only a junior post, his exit was significant due to his closeness to Streeting. He was followed by Naushabah Khan, PPS to Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones, another Streeting ally. Then Chris Curtis, chairman of the Labour Growth Group, publicly urged Starmer to fall on his sword.
The Labour Left detests Streeting for his support of private contractors in the NHS and his admiration for Tony Blair. John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow chancellor, accused the Health Secretary of mounting a 'coup' against Starmer.
Another Labour source said: 'The Left are trying to paint Streeting as a treacherous schemer and doing it with some success.'
While Streeting’s 'friends' are anxiously briefing that he will not wield the knife, this publication can disclose that Team Streeting has been operational for weeks, preparing the golden boy for power. Members include Peter Kyle, one of Streeting’s closest friends, with whom he shared a Commons office for nine years. Kyle was campaigning last week in the local elections in Streeting’s Ilford North constituency, where the Health Secretary holds a wafer-thin 528 majority. Kyle and Streeting, it can be revealed, even discussed the putative leadership over dinner after watching The Devil Wears Prada 2.
Another member is Anas Sarwar, Leader of Scottish Labour, who in February became the most senior party figure to call for Starmer to go. Team Streeting is also busy signing up MPs, party members, and trade unionists who would have a vote in a leadership contest. Dozens of Labour MPs have been approached to support Streeting, who needs 81 on his side—one fifth of the parliamentary party—to mount a challenge. There have also been extensive talks with sympathetic think tanks about developing policy ideas.
'The Streeting operation is already in business,' said another supporter. 'It’s got people and it’s got money.'
There is even a 'WesForLeader.com' website, but the Health Secretary’s supporters insist this was a mischievous creation of his rivals to smear him.
One person definitely excluded from Team Streeting is his friend of 20 years, Lord Mandelson, whose appointment as US ambassador triggered what was until recently the worst crisis of Starmer’s leadership. Some scurrilous party members joke that Streeting and Mandelson are part of a so-called 'gay mafia' at the heart of the Labour Party. Streeting is engaged to Joe Dancey, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who used to work for Mandelson—himself one of Britain’s first openly gay Cabinet ministers.
When Matthew Doyle—also gay—was being eased out of his job as communications director in Number 10 in February last year, Streeting contacted Mandelson in Washington to say: 'You should get Doyle to do your comms in DC!' Mandelson asked: 'Why, was he pushed out?' To which Streeting responded tersely: 'God knows.' Elevated to the peerage in December that year, Doyle was suspended by Labour weeks later over his links to a friend, Sean Morton, now a convicted paedophile.
'They all wanted Mandelson to get that job and look at the mess we’re in now,' hissed a senior Labour figure last night. Streeting is now distancing himself from both men and has been hastily deleting photographs of him campaigning with Mandelson, including one calling the serially disgraced peer a 'legend'.
As a former EU trade commissioner, Mandelson would approve of Streeting’s ardent pro-Brussels stance. The Health Secretary is keen to go much further than Starmer in 'resetting' relations with Brussels.
Then there is Streeting’s back story, one of the most compelling of a would-be prime minister since the revelation that John Major was the son of a circus performer. Besides being the first openly gay PM, Streeting would be the first occupant of 10 Downing Street whose mother was born in prison. His grandmother Libby gave birth to his mother Corrina in 1964 while serving time in HMP Holloway in north London for receiving stolen goods. Corrina had him when she was 18, and he has five brothers, a sister, and a step-sister.
His autobiography One Boy, Two Bills And A Fry Up—published in 2023 when he was still only 40—describes the stigma of growing up with free school meals and tells how the NHS helped him overcome kidney cancer in 2021. He has never made any secret of his ambition. When asked in 2018 who he thought would be Labour leader in ten years, Streeting replied: 'It’ll probably be me.' In 2023, he said he would 'die happy' if he got the chance to serve as Labour leader, adding: 'I have never been ashamed of aiming high and going as far as my talents will take me.'
There is just one problem with aiming high: it is a long fall if he does not hit his target.
