Inside lifetime of Wes Streeting from wild pet store rumours to jailbird grandparents

As an internal war rages within the Labour Party, the Mirror takes a look at the colourful life of Wes Streeting, a possible challenger to Sir Keir Starmer, whose rollercoaster ride to Westminister has been anything but conventional

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As Health Minister Wes Streeting looks set to resign, it’s believed he stands poised to fight for the top spot as the Labour Party navigates a civil war.

Streeting, 43, has reportedly told allies he is preparing to resign from government and will be triggering a leadership contest as early as tomorrow. This follows a 16-minute crisis meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whom 80 MPs have publicly called upon to resign after last week’s woeful local election results.

Sir Keir has today asserted that he has “full confidence” in Streeting, but rumours continue to swirl. When approached by the Mirror, a spokesperson did not deny these whispers, diplomatically remarking, “Wes is the Health Secretary, he is proud of his record of falling waiting lists and a recovering NHS. He is not planning to say anything following his meeting with the Prime Minister that might distract from the King’s Speech.”

Now, after a disastrous few days for Labour Party voters, many are turning their attention to Streeting, whose colourful life and unlikely rise to power reads like the pages of a Dickensian novel.

READ MORE: Wes Streeting ‘preparing to quit to trigger leadership contest’

Tough start in life

While he now rubs shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the land, Streeting was born into a dysfunctional family plagued by poverty and crime. In his memoir One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up, the Stepney native shared how his teenage mum defiantly decided against an abortion, going against her own mother’s wishes by eating a fry-up the morning before she was booked to go to the clinic – she had been informed not to eat beforehand, so the procedure couldn’t go forward.

Streeting’s grandfather was an armed robber, who also involved his grandmother, who was allegedly “blinded by love,” in his crimes, much to the shock of young Streeting when he found out. In his 2023 memoir, Streeting wrote: “Having led Nanny Libby astray, Grandad Pops would involve her in ‘drumming houses’ – driving out to big homes in the country and knocking on doors posing as a couple looking for a local dog breeder from whom to buy a puppy. Anyone answering would be greeted by the sight of an apparently respectable couple, who would then claim to have the wrong address before moving on. If nobody was home, Grandad would break in and make off with whatever valuables he could find.”

Both grandparents ended up behind bars in 1964, with ‘Nanny Libby’ ending up sharing a cell with the model Christine Keeler, of the Profumo sex scandal fame, who even made reference to their prison friendship in her own memoirs. It was while serving time that his grandmother gave birth to his mother, Corrina Anne Crowley, while enduring “the humiliation of being under guard and handcuffed”.

Streeting revealed: “She would later tell Mum the nurses were so horrible that when one asked what she was imprisoned for, she replied: ‘Murder – and the next one will be you!'”

Humble upbringing

Growing up in an East End council flat, Streeting’s life was a world away from the Eton-educated peers he would later share benches with. As an adult, he would keenly remember the embarrassment of not being able to bring cake and sweets in for his Old Church nursery school classmates, and how this made him feel different to the other children, who came in armed with “fun size sweets”.

Streeting reflected: “I can still feel embarrassment like a hand twisting my stomach. It was the first time I had felt the humiliation of poverty – that Mum wasn’t able to provide something other parents could; that we were the exception because we were poor. It wouldn’t be the last time, but on this day, fortunately, it would be short-lived, thanks to one of the staff who went across the road and bought a Victoria sponge. It was only a small cake, in a little box with cellophane wrapping, but it meant the world to me.”

Even as a youngster, Streeting had begun shaping his opinions on current affairs. His grandfather Bill, who was acquainted with the notorious Kray twins, made sure to engage his grandson on meaty topics such as religion and politics, being “really well read and well informed”.

The budding politician was dissatisfied with negative views being espoused by some Conservative politicians about families such as his own, which he took “quite personally”. This “working-class chip on [his] shoulder” spurred Streeting on. As he put it: “I’m just not going to let posh people get ahead of me.”

Cambridge dreams

Despite dealing with bullying at school, Streeting flourished academically, earning top grades in his exams. This helped pave the way towards a brighter future, but it was the Sutton Trust Summer School that proved to be life-changing. Encouraged by a supportive teacher, Streeting “spent the summer of 2000 living as a Cambridge history student”, attending lectures, penning essays and meeting “some great people”.

This proved to be the “confidence boost” the working-class lad needed, and made him realise that the world of Oxbridge wasn’t just for private school kids. In a piece penned for the Sutton Trust website, Streeting, who read History at Selwyn College, recalled: “When I got home, I knew that I was going to apply to Cambridge. The summer school made me realise that I had just as much right to go to a top university as anyone else. Not only that, I had a good chance of getting in. I saw that Cambridge wasn’t the stuffy institution I thought it was. I knew that I would fit in, make friends and have a great time.”

Streeting ended up thriving at Cambridge, and, in his final year, successfully campaigned to become president of Cambridge University Students’ Union. A career in politics perhaps seemed the next logical step.

Westminister rise

Streeting’s Cambridge education opened many doors for him, and he was quickly on the road to success. He kick-started his career with a one-year stint at the New Labour pressure group, before going on to work as a public sector reform consultant for professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

After being elected as a Councillor for Redbridge Council. where he was later appointed Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for health and wellbeing, Streeting gave up his PwC post, and was hired as Head of Policy and Strategic Communications for Baroness Oona King’s office ahead of her unsuccessful 2012 London Mayoral election bid.

It was in 2015 that Streeting’s career really began to make waves, when he was elected MP for Ilford North. Five years later, when Sir Keir Starmer rose as head of the Labour Party, Streeting was appointed Shadow Secretary to the Treasury, before becoming Shadow Minister for Schools in October of that same year.

The following May, Streeting was announced as Shadow Secretary of State for Child Poverty, before being promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that November.

Finding love after coming out journey

Streeting is in a relationship with communications and public affairs adviser Joe Dancey, who previously made an unsuccessful Labour bid in Stockton West in the 2024 general election. The couple met in 2013 and announced their engagement in 2022. But it hasn’t been an easy road to love for Streeting, who came out as gay during his days at Cambridge.

Writing for the Mirror in 2023, Streeting shared: While I had the courage to be myself at university, I hadn’t yet found the courage to tell my family. That was until one evening in the autumn of 2006. ‘Can I talk to you?’ [My step-mum] asked.

“‘Your dad knocked some papers off your desk,’ she said. ‘One of them was a civil partnership invitation addressed to you and someone else. Your dad has put two and two together, and I think he’s made four’. My secret was out now. I could do nothing but wait anxiously for Dad to come home from work. Coming out in Cambridge felt liberating. Coming out at home felt terrifying.”

He continued: “When I entered the living room, Dad was sitting on the sofa. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember Dad’s reaction was sadness that I hadn’t told him. ‘Why am I the last to know? Why did you think I wouldn’t accept you? Are you happy?’ The worries Dad had were ones shared by lots of parents. Would my life be harder being gay?

“Would it affect my career? Would I catch HIV and AIDS? It didn’t take long for us to deal with any lingering awkwardness in our usual Streeting family way: with humour. I felt loved and accepted.”

Kidney cancer shock

In May 2021, Streeting revealed he’d been diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of just 38. Thankfully, the illness was detected early, and, by July of that same year, Streeting was “back at work, fighting fit and cancer-free”. Streeting, who had a kidney removed during treatment, issued the following statement at the time: “So, the first thing I want to say, from the bottom of my heart is a massive thank you to everyone who got in touch friends, family, colleagues but also loads of people I’ve never even met who were generous enough to share their stories about battling cancer generally and kidney cancer specifically, and gave me all sorts of words of encouragement at a time when they really mattered most.”

He added, “So, I just count my lucky stars really. I’ve lost a kidney, but I’ve also got rid of the cancer. No chemotherapy, no radiotherapy. I’m just really lucky.” In February of this year, Streeting unveiled his National Cancer Plan, pledging to get to “faster diagnosis within 28 days, faster access to first treatment within 62 days, [and] faster starts to treatment within 31 days”.

Reflecting on his own experience, Streeting said: “Receiving a cancer diagnosis at the age of 38 was a shock to put it mildly. It changed my life in an instant – and it’s changed my life forever.”

Pet shop conspiracy

During an interview on The Sun’s YouTube show Never Mind The Ballots, Streeting hit back at bizarre claims that he had burned down a pet shop during his student days, clarifying that it was a “completely made-up story”. Streeting, who has been plagued by these rumours for a good decade, explained: “I’m not often complimentary about my Twitter trolls…but there was one troll a good few years back who mocked up this totally fabricated interaction between me and someone else on Facebook, where I was accused of burning down a pet shop at University to get into a University drinking society.

“And my favourite bit about this totally false story, completely made up, no truth in it whatsoever, is that someone said that my powerful and well-connected dad got me off. Now, my dad’s a car salesman who lives in Romford. But the pet shop truthers are still out there.”

This tall tale appears to have been sparked on Facebook, where a user claimed Streeting had torched the “Kitty Corral pet shop in 2004”. They alleged: “Wes wanted to join an exclusive club at his posh university, and they jokingly said if he burnt down a pet shop, he could join. He burnt it down that night, and was caught on CCTV but his connections convinced the owners not to go through with prosecuting.”

After the daft and unsupported rumour spread like wildfire in 2015, Streeting jokingly remarked: “The charges were dropped because of lack of evidence, and that’s all there is to it”. Unfortunately, not everybody realised this was a jest. Fortunately, Streeting is able to see the funny side.

He confessed: “I’ve got to hold my hands up… I did go and see the Pet Shop Boys a few years ago, and did tweet a picture with three flaming emojis. So I may have fanned the flames of the conspiracy theory.”

Lord Mandelson friendship

In February 2026, Streeting made the decision to release messages exchanged with former US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson, who was forced to resign from the House of Lords following allegations of misconduct in public office earlier this year. While Lord Mandelson’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was known at the time of the appointment in December 2024, he was sacked as the UK’s ambassador in Washington in September after Downing Street confirmed new information about this connection had come to light.

This included emails showing Lord Mandelson urged Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before the sex offender was sentenced to 18 months in prison. It has also been reported that Lord Mandelson told disgraced financier Epstein, “I think the world of you”, just one day before he began his jail sentence.

In a piece penned for The Guardian, Streeting attempted to put the record straight concerning his own dealings with Lord Mandelson, after what he described as “a weekend of smear and innuendo that I have something to hide”. Streeting insisted: “Contrary to what has been widely reported, I was not a close friend of Peter Mandelson, but I am not going to wash my hands of my actual association with him either.”

He continued: “Mandelson and I saw each other for dinner on average once a year, in a group setting. He offered advice. My partner worked for him 25 years ago, and I therefore got to know him better than others of that generation in politics, a generation I have always admired since I joined the Labour Party as a 15-year-old in 1998. I wasn’t involved in his appointment, but like many other people, I thought it was a good move at the time.”

In one exchange, Streeting sought Mandelson’s advice on Palestine, asserting that Israel was “committing war crimes before our eyes” and engaging in “rogue state behaviour”. In another private message, Streeting admitted that he thought he would be “toast at the next election,” expressing the belief that the government has “no growth strategy at all”.

The Devil Wears Prada alibi

Pet shop fires aside, one of the most interesting claims made about Streeting in recent times is that he couldn’t possibly have been plotting to overthrow Sir Keir as he was too busy settling in to watch the hotly anticipated fashion comedy sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2.

The health secretary’s friend and cabinet colleague, Peter Kyle, told Sky News: “We went for dinner, and we went to see a movie together.. Somebody who was planning to pull the plug and launch a leadership bid in a couple of days’ time doesn’t go to the cinema with a friend.”

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