Wes Streeting walked out of Keir Starmer’s cabinet on Thursday, May 14, and said why in a letter that left little room for doubt. “It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election,” the 43-year-old health secretary wrote.
He had lost confidence in the prime minister, he said, after Labour’s dire results in the local elections a week earlier. Staying on would be “dishonourable and unprincipled,” even though, as he put it, there were “good reasons for me to remain in post.” He blamed “the unpopularity of this government” for the losses and said Labour needed a vision but instead had “a vacuum.”
The letter stopped short of launching a leadership challenge. Under party rules he would need the backing of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a contest, and he did not say whether he had them. Starmer’s supporters claimed he was nowhere near that number, with one saying he had only 44 committed backers. Streeting’s allies insisted he had the numbers. One told the BBC he chose to press Starmer to set a departure timetable instead of “stitching up a contest.” Alan Gemmell, the MP for Central Ayrshire, said Streeting had “taken a principled decision today not to trigger a contest.”
Replacement by nightfall
Starmer named James Murray health secretary late that day. Lucy Rigby took over Murray’s old job as chief secretary to the Treasury. In his own letter, Starmer told Streeting he was “truly sorry” to lose him from the cabinet table. A spokesman repeated that the prime minister was “purely focused on governing.”
Streeting’s departure came after four junior ministers had already quit, among them safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, and more than 80 MPs had urged Starmer to go or set out a route to his exit. Hours after Streeting announced, Labour MP Josh Simons said he would give up his Makerfield seat so Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham could try to return to Parliament. Burnham said he would ask Labour’s national executive for permission to stand in the by-election. A special election, open to other parties, would be required.
The record he cited
Streeting had been health secretary since Labour won the 2024 election, and shadow health secretary from 2021. His letter pointed to NHS waiting lists falling by 110,000 in March 2026, the biggest drop outside the COVID years since 2008, and to the recruitment of 2,000 GPs. He also said GP satisfaction had risen from 60 percent to 74.5 percent since Labour took office. He had overseen the start of an overhaul built around the 10-Year Health Plan, and the King’s Speech set out plans to abolish NHS England.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Starmer “has my full support” and that Streeting had done “a fantastic job,” though she added: “I fundamentally disagree with the position he’s taken.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged colleagues not to put the economy “at risk” by “plunging the country into chaos.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Labour had “descended into civil war.”
Angela Rayner also re-entered the picture that day. She said she had settled her tax affairs with HMRC, paying £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty, and told the Guardian she had not ruled out running but would not trigger a contest.
Sources
- Britain’s Health Secretary Streeting resigns as pressure on Starmer grows
- Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary
- Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary
