UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigns, citing loss of confidence in Starmer
Streeting’s departure follows severe losses to nationalist and populist parties, while former deputy leader Angela Rayner clears tax hurdles in a move seen as positioning her for a leadership challenge.
UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting has resigned from the Cabinet, becoming the first senior member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to withdraw his support. In a lengthy letter published online, Streeting cited a loss of confidence in Starmer’s leadership following significant Labour Party defeats in recent local and regional elections. He described the recent results as unprecedented in both scale and consequence, arguing that it would be dishonorable to remain in post without that confidence.
Streeting’s resignation letter criticised the Prime Minister’s approach as "congenitally incremental and managerial," pointing to specific policy errors such as the backlash over limiting winter fuel payments and Starmer’s "island of strangers" speech on migration. He argued that nationalist and reformist forces now hold significant influence across the United Kingdom, citing the Scottish National Party in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in England.
The political turmoil follows heavy losses for Labour in English municipal elections and elections for the national parliaments in Scotland and Wales. The party lost more than 1,400 council seats in England, slipping from 36.2% of the vote to 11.1% in the Welsh Senedd, where it fell from the largest party to a distant third. Meanwhile, the SNP reasserted dominance in Scotland, with Reform UK winning as many seats as Labour.
Simultaneously, former Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner’s team issued a statement at 6 a.m. local time on Thursday confirming that the national tax authority had deemed her property tax scandal resolved. This move was widely interpreted as positioning Rayner to challenge Starmer for the party leadership, although she avoided announcing a direct bid.
In an interview with The Guardian, Rayner refused to be drawn on whether she planned to challenge Starmer, stating only that "Keir will have to reflect on that" regarding whether he should step down. Both Streeting and Rayner have avoided announcing direct leadership bids, instead encouraging Starmer to step down voluntarily to avoid a formal vote in the House of Commons, where over 100 Labour MPs have signed a letter of support for the Prime Minister.
