Wes Streeting shares brutal ‘upkeep division’ verdict on Labour technique
The Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned the Government was failing to communicate its achievements, and presenting itself as the ‘maintenance department for the country’
Wes Streeting has expressed frustration with the Labour leadership’s approach just weeks after he was accused of plotting to oust Keir Starmer.
The Health Secretary warned the Government was failing to communicate its achievements, and presenting itself as the “maintenance department for the country”. Mr Streeting also attacked the briefings last month that saw him accused of plotting to replace the PM.
Speaking with the New Statesman, he claimed Labour is at risk of presenting itself as the “maintenance department for the country”. It comes less than a month after briefings against Mr Streeting began, inan apparent ploy to warn off potential leadership contenders.
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He said: “The problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, ‘Well, I’ve got a maintenance company too, and mine’s cheaper,’ why wouldn’t people go, ‘OK, well, we’ll give that maintenance team a try’?”
The Cabinet minister also said he is “pretty frustrated” by the party’s predicament. He said: “I feel like on one hand, since we’ve come into government, we’ve actually done a huge amount that we said we’d do. But that’s not reflected in the polls, and I don’t think it’s even reflected in our storytelling. I think we sell ourselves short.”
Mr Streeting also hit out at those who claimed he was planning to oust Mr Starmer, and that the allegations actually damaged the PM. He said: “It sort of came from the blue. I couldn’t understand what on Earth they were thinking. Putting to one side the attempted drive-by on me, I could not understand the political strategy of people who purport to be the Prime Minister’s allies going out and saying he’s fighting for his job.”
The Health Secretary previously compared the civil war to an episode of Celebrity Traitors, saying this is “the worst attack on a faithful” since rugby star Joe Marler was banished in the final. He backed the PM and said he was completely behind him.
Framing the next election as a battle between Labour and Reform UK, Mr Streeting added: “We’re certainly not going to win by out-reforming Reform.
“We can take them on and beat them with values-driven Labour arguments. We can reunite the centre and the left, and I think that is the historic responsibility that we have.”
Mr Streeting previously said briefing about a Labour leadership challenge is “self-defeating” and “doesn’t help anyone”, and denied plotting to oust the Prime Minister. Mr Starmer also defended his senior minister, saying “any attack on any member of my Cabinet is completely unacceptable”.
