Wes Streeting has announced that he intends to stand in a Labour leadership race if one is triggered to replace Sir Keir Starmer.
The Labour civil war continues after an eventful week that saw several ministers resign to pile on pressure on the Prime Minister.
Streeting quit as the Health Secretary on Thursday, but he did not launch a direct leadership challenge to Sir Keir as was predicted.
He welcomed Andy Burnham’s bombshell announcement to stand in the Makerfield by-election to try to get back into Parliament.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
The former Health Secretary said: ‘We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I’ll be standing.’
Everything is changing, all the time
Cut through political noise and understand how the Westminster chaos actually affects your life with Metro’s politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sign up here.
Streeting insisted that Burnham, who is expected to enter any future leadership contest if he wins in Makerfield, needs to be given a chance to run in the by-election.
He told the Progress think tank conference: ‘Firstly, I do have support in the parliamentary party, but this week I also had a choice.
Read here why the Makerfield by-election matters
‘We could have rushed straight into a leadership contest, knowing not all of the candidates would be on the pitch, that Andy Burnham was about to stand in a by-election, and that if we had rushed ahead without giving Andy a chance to stand, the new leader, whether it was me or anyone else, would lack the legitimacy, and so we would end up extending instability and uncertainty.
‘That might have been the self-interested thing to do for candidates who are in Parliament presently, but it wasn’t in the party’s interest and wasn’t in the national interest.’
Despite the possibility of coming face-to-face with Burnham in a leadership contest, Streeting said he will be campaigning for him.
He said he will be in Makerfield, a ward southwest of Wigan in Greater Manchester, going ‘door-knocking day after day to help him get elected.’
Earlier, Streeting said Labour is risking becoming ‘handmaidens of Nigel Farage and the breakup of the United Kingdom’ unless it changes course.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Reform UK leader Farage vowed that his party will ‘throw absolutely everything’ at the Makerfield by-election.
Sir Keir has been defiant despite mounting pressure calling on him to resign this week in the wake of the disastrous local election result for Labour.
A new poll by YouGov found that 38% of people believe it is ‘very unlikely’ Sir Keir will still be the Prime Minister at the end of 2026.
Sir Keir hit out at the organisers of the Unite the Kingdom rally, which has attracted thousands of people to London today and led to several arrests even before the march started.
How did Makerfield vote in the previous general election?
The Makerfield ward, an area in Winstanley nestled southwest of Wigan in Greater Manchester, was won by Labour in the 2024 general election.
While Labour’s Josh Simons, who stood down today to clear the path for Burnham, won with 18,202 votes, Reform UK was closely behind.
Reform’s Robert Kenyon took home 12,803 votes, with a huge gap before the third candidate, Conservative Simon Finkelstein (4,379 votes).
Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.