Wes Streeting resigns and calls for Keir Starmer to quit as PM

Wes Streeting has resigned from his position as health secretary ahead of an expected attempt to challenge Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and the position of prime minister.

In his resignation letter, Streeting told Starmer it was 'clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election'.

He wrote: "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.

“It needs to be broad, and it needs to be the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope you will continue to facilitate it.”

Streeting likely considers that the 'best possible field of candidates' includes himself.

Over 80 Labour MPs have signed a letter calling on Starmer to go following the local elections where they lost the most councillors, though over 100 signed a letter in support of the prime minister's continued leadership.

Starmer, meanwhile, has told his cabinet he plans to 'get on with governing' and is not intending to quit unless someone is able to succeed against him in a leadership challenge.

A leadership contest in Labour is triggered if the party leader resigns or if 20 percent of MPs nominate a challenger, which is 81 MPs, and if the leader is still in place they are automatically on the ballot.

If Streeting does intend to challenge Starmer for leadership then he needs to amass sufficient support from his fellow MPs, or hope Starmer does eventually bow to pressure from parts of his own party to resign.

He'll also need the support of Labour members who get the final say, but polling from Survation and Labour List indicates Streeting would likely lose a vote from party members as in a contest between them 56 percent would back Starmer while just 23 percent would support Streeting.

While Starmer has faced pressure over the appointment of Peter Mandelson, who had links to the late and disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Wes Streeting also had a friendship with Mandelson.

The former health secretary had initially defended Mandelson but later said that the former UK ambassador to the US had betrayed his country.

If there is a leadership contest, which has not yet been triggered, then there would be other candidates who would likely wish to advance their cause once the starting pistol was fired.

Noises from the camps of Starmer's former deputy Angela Rayner, who last year quit the government over a tax scandal which has now been resolved, and of former Labour leader Ed Miliband have suggested they might throw their hats into the ring.

Bookies have Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper in the running, while in this contest the prince across the water is Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who is not a Labour MP and therefore ineligible for party leadership.

However, some places have him down as the favourite and if Burnham could stand in a seat and get back into Westminster then he could enter the competition.

If a leadership challenge comes sooner rather than later then Burnham will be stuck on the sidelines.

Keir Starmer’s road to resignation: a timeline

Starmer’s premiership has been controversial from the off, in a government rife with U-turns on issues like the two-child benefit cap and pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.

But this is when the writing was truly on the wall for Starmer:

20 December 2024

Starmer appoints Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US, a decision he will come to regret

28 January 2025

We didn’t know this at the time, but on this date, UK Security Vetting (UKSV) advises that Mandelson should be denied security clearance. The following day, the Foreign Office decides to ignore UKSV’s guidance.

1 July 2025

Starmer is forced into a significant U-turn on plans to cut welfare payments, and 49 MPs still vote against the amended bill. It’s the biggest rebellion of Starmer’s premiership, and exposes tensions between Labour MPs and No 10 which aren’t going to go away.

10 September 2025

Bloomberg publishes emails from Mandelson to Jeffrey Epstein advising him to ‘fight for early release’, sent in 2008, the day before he reported to jail after being convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

11 September 2025

Mandelson is sacked as US ambassador. That month, the Labour Party conference is dominated by rumours that Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is looking to mount a leadership challenge.

25 January 2026

Andy Burnham is blocked from standing as an MP in the Gorton and Denton by-election, leading to further unrest within the Labour Party

30 January 2026

The US government releases the largest tranche of documents relating to Epstein so far. Emails within the files suggest Mandelson passed on sensitive government information to Epstein, and lobbied the Treasury on his behalf during his tenure as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government. Labour MPs are furious about the revelations.

23 February 2026

Mandelson is arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

7 May 2026

A disastrous polling day for Labour, the worst local elections result for the party on record, losing almost 1,500 councillors in England, with Reform making huge gains.

9 May 2026

Labour MP Catherine West demands that a cabinet minister challenge Starmer for the leadership, or she will herself. She later backs down.

11 May 2026

It’s widely reported that four senior cabinet ministers, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, are telling Starmer to set out a timeline for his departure. Meanwhile, nearly 80 Labour MPs are thought to have signed Catherine West’s letter demanding Starmer resign. Starmer delivers a speech saying he’s ‘not walking away’, while admitting: “The British people are tired of a status quo that has failed them.”

14 May 2026

Wes Streeting resigns from his position as health secretary with a letter attacking Starmer's leadership.