Britain’s health minister, Wes Streeting announced on Thursday that he had resigned, paving the way for him to take a leadership challenge against embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In his resignation letter to Starmer, which Streeting posted on X, he said: “It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election”.
He added that he had “lost confidence” in Starmer’s leadership, and a debate about what comes next for the ruling party “needs to be broad, and it needs to be the best possible field of candidates”.
Streeting did not say whether he had the required support of 81 Labour MPs — 20 per cent of the party in parliament — to prompt a contest.
Starmer, who led his Labour party to victory in 2024 elections, ending 14 years of Conservative rule, is fighting to save his job after disastrous local and regional polls last week.
Four junior ministers have resigned and more than 80 Labour MPs have urged him to quit, but he has vowed to cling on and more than 100 lawmakers from the ruling party have called for him to stay.
On Thursday, his former deputy Angela Rayner announced that UK tax authorities had “cleared” her of deliberate wrongdoing in a tax affair, opening the way for her to compete in a potential leadership race.
The 46-year-old insisted she would not be the one to trigger a contest, but told the Guardian newspaper she would play “whatever role I can” to “deliver the change”.
