If you aspire to be Prime Minister, one quality stands above all others: courage. This morning, a member of Keir Starmer's beleaguered Government is finally displaying it. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is rising above the parapet and putting himself forward to replace the Prime Minister.
The announcement, communicated via 'friends', comes with a degree of Westminster sophistry. It includes the modest fig leaf that he will not directly challenge Starmer unless things 'fall apart'. But they are falling apart, and have been since Starmer first entered Downing Street. They fell apart for 1,500 Labour councillors last Thursday, and will fall apart for 70 million Britons if Starmer is not swiftly removed.
The specific mechanism for removing Sir Keir from No 10 is yet to be determined, but Cabinet members believe it will be triggered within the next 48 hours. On Saturday, the Labour Party was stunned when former Foreign Office minister Catherine West announced she would directly challenge Starmer if ministers did not move against him by Monday. Initially seen as a freelance operation, her uncompromising demand for Starmer to go has garnered support among parliamentary colleagues.
There is uncertainty over whether West will secure the 81 nominations necessary to force a contest. However, within the Cabinet, there is an assumption that once the Prime Minister delivers his latest 'reset speech' tomorrow, there will be a decisive push within the parliamentary party to force him to either announce his immediate departure or set a timetable for a transition around the Labour Party conference.
'We need to give him the opportunity to speak tomorrow,' one Minister said, 'but then, after that, people will move. I expect there will be well above the number needed to trigger a contest by this time on Tuesday.'
Some ministers have suggested that Streeting's supporters may surreptitiously throw their weight behind West's unconventional insurgency. But his allies expect the names to emerge via a different route, probably letters in which MPs state they no longer have confidence in Starmer. These names would then be presented to the Prime Minister, who would be given the choice of stepping down or being dragged out of Downing Street.
One minister suggested Sir Keir will accept his fate. 'I think he'll go by the end of this week, without the need for a contest,' they said. Yesterday, it was clear Streeting's boldness had caught his opponents within the party on the hop. 'Oh s***!' was the response of one Left-leaning MP when informed of a newspaper report that the Health Secretary was mobilising. Over the next 24 hours, they will try to rally.
Aside from Starmer himself, the biggest potential loser is Andy Burnham. The Manchester Mayor was planning to announce later in the week that he had found a seat to enable a triumphal return to Parliament. That plan has now been thrown into disarray, creating the prospect of him being left marooned in his North West citadel as events unfold 200 miles to the south.
With Burnham off the pitch, the Labour Left are scrambling to find a candidate of their own. Yesterday, Angela Rayner put out a 1,000-word statement criticising Starmer for his 'cronyism', lambasting him for blocking Burnham from standing in the Gorton by-election, and launching a slightly bizarre attack on Thames Water. But she pointedly held back from calling for Starmer to step down or announcing her own candidacy.
Some allies of Rayner claimed she was simply waiting to see if Streeting formally launched his bid, at which point she would enter the race to save Labour from a new Blairite usurper. But another close friend told me she was losing the stomach for the fight. 'The tax issue [unpaid stamp duty on her flat in Hove] comes up a lot on the doorsteps. People have concerns about her inner circle. And she knows it. There's a feeling her moment has passed.'
Which leaves one other potential high-profile challenger. According to one minister, Environment Secretary Ed Miliband has been canvassing support from his parliamentary colleagues for his own dramatic return to the leadership. 'Ed's been canvassing a lot of people,' the minister revealed. 'He's told friends his preference would be for Andy to stand. But if he can't, then he's prepared to step up himself.'
It's now only three days since Keir Starmer reacted to his party's local election defenestration with a tone-deaf response that he was going nowhere. Since that act of misplaced defiance, his already precarious political position has imploded. His terse Friday morning interview was followed on Saturday by the incomprehensible announcement that he had selected Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to help drive through his 'agenda for change'. This was followed by an interview with a Sunday newspaper in which he declared he intended to serve two full terms, a prospect greeted with horror by his despairing parliamentarians.
As one Labour grandee observed: 'Everyone's been wondering who would finish off Keir Starmer. The reality is he's finished himself off. His response to the local elections has been to say to the British people: "I know you say you don't like me. Well, just wait and see. I'll make you like me in the end."'
A Cabinet minister agreed: 'With Morgan [McSweeney] gone, there is no one with the authority to tell Keir what to do, or rally the staff internally – let alone the Cabinet – behind a coherent strategy to save him.' In the battle to replace Keir Starmer, Wes Streeting has stolen a march on his colleagues. And fortune usually favours the brave.
