Wes Streeting’s statement on NHS waiting times was comically straight-faced. “Our plan for the NHS is working. This is the biggest cut in waiting lists in a single month in 17 years,” he said, in a press release published on the website of NHS England – a body that Streeting “abolished” more than a year ago, but which is still there.
The health secretary himself did not appear on the media, as he was expected to do, apparently having been ordered by the prime minister yesterday not to do so.
And so far there is no sign of Streeting launching his challenge to Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party. If he fails to announce that he is a candidate, that is a disaster for him – and a setback for the country.
Streeting’s people told journalists yesterday that he would resign from the cabinet today and launch a leadership challenge. If he backs down now, he will look ridiculous. Even if he is only delaying his announcement, he will look indecisive.
Many of his allies have already gone over the top of the trenches. Jess Phillips, the women’s minister and a Streeting ally, resigned with a devastating critique of Starmer for lacking boldness and substituting words for deeds. Joe Morris, the MP who is Streeting’s ministerial aide, has gone. Several of Streeting’s backbench supporters have gone public calling for Starmer to go, and to go quickly – the coded implication being, “before Andy Burnham gets in”. Streeting cannot afford to let these people down.
He allowed the briefing yesterday. It was all “sources” this and “deniable” that, but on something as important as this, he cannot shrug off responsibility. If he bottles it without a very good reason, it will be the end of his career.
It has been suggested by some MPs sympathetic to Streeting that he is giving Starmer one last chance to step down with dignity. It seems unlikely that the prime minister will choose to do that. His tactic has been to insist that he will fight all comers for the right to stay in No 10. I don’t think he will actually be a candidate if there is a leadership election, but until then he has to insist that he will be.
I don’t think, for example, that today’s poll for Labour List of party members, suggesting Starmer would beat Streeting by a two-to-one margin, reflects what would happen in an election. Then the question changes from, “Should Starmer be challenged?” to, “Who should lead the party into the next election?”
So Streeting has to step up and announce that he is a candidate and that he is seeking nominations. If he doesn’t have the required 81 names signed up already, which would be understandable, as MPs will not want to be nailed down until they know that it is actually happening, he will have the names within a few hours.
He was obviously hoping that the pressure he brought to bear on Starmer would force the prime minister to move first: either to announce his intention to stand down or to sack Streeting. Either way, Streeting would be able to say that it was not he who had “plunged the country into chaos”.
But Starmer is refusing to budge. Angela Rayner has played a subtle game, assisted by the generous ruling of HMRC on her tax affairs and its extraordinary timing. She is not going to move first either, but she has signalled her availability.
Streeting’s only words so far today make it clear that he will campaign on his record in charge of the Labour Party’s totemic institution, the NHS. The figures published today mean “we are right on track to deliver the fastest reduction in waiting times in the history of the NHS”, Streeting said in his press release. He said: “That is thanks to the government’s investment, modernisation, and the remarkable efforts of staff right across the country.”
And he concluded: “Lots done, lots more to do.” That was, of course, Tony Blair’s slogan for the 2001 election, when New Labour really got going on public service reform.
But now Streeting has “lots more to do” today to save his career.
If he lacks the courage to launch his challenge, the only thing he will be winning will be future series of Strictly Come Dancing.
