Wes Streeting, who quit as Britain's health secretary this week, said Saturday he will run to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer as Labour leader after the party's poor performance in local elections. Speaking at a London think tank event, Streeting said Labour now needs "a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I'll be standing." His move follows a string of ministerial resignations and growing unrest in the party, CBS News reports, after local polls in England showed sharp losses for Labour and gains for Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Streeting, the first Cabinet member to abandon Starmer, ripped the prime minister's leadership on the way out.
Another possible candidate is Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, whom Streeter has praised. Burnham is angling to run for a seat in Parliament in an upcoming election; success would mean he could mount a challenge to become prime minister. Burnham has said he is entering the parliamentary race to save Labour, per the Independent, and he told the BBC in an interview that the party must accept it has "not been good enough." A leadership contest as not yet been formally triggered. Party rules require challengers to have the backing of at least 20% of Labour MPs to launch a leadership election.
Starmer, in office for just under two years after Labour's landslide general election win, has pledged to stay on, warning colleagues that a leadership battle would create chaos when the government should be focused on the cost of living and conflicts in the Middle East. But the BBC says the questions Starmer faces every day are: "Does Wes have the numbers? And does Andy have a seat?"
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