Health Secretary Wes Streeting categorically rules a leadership challenge with ex-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner after reports claimed his allies were seeking a ‘joint ticket’
Wes Streeting has rubbished claims he is plotting a joint ticket leadership bid for Downing Street with Angela Rayner.
The Health Secretary categorically ruled out the idea after reports last week claimed his allies were attempting to make a pitch to the ex-Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Rayner. It was suggested Ms Rayner, who was forced to quit from Keir Starmer’s government in September but remains popular among MPs and party members, would be promised a Cabinet role if she backed Mr Streeting.
Appearing on LBC call-in on Friday, Mr Streeting was asked: “Can you categorically rule out a leadership challenge with Angela Rayner – yes or no?” The senior Labour minister laughed and replied: “Yes – yes is the short answer to that.”
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Last week Mr Streeting’s spokesperson also dismissed the claims as a “silly season story and completely untrue”. They added: “Wes’s entire focus is on getting the NHS through this winter, and the only deal he’s interested in doing is with the resident doctors to avert strikes. People appear to be getting carried away and misinterpreting his support for Angela as something other than supporting a good person going through a difficult time.”
Mr Streeting’s comments came as he also expressed frustration at Labour’s strategy in an interview on Thursday – just weeks after he was forced to deny he was plotting to oust Mr Starmer. The Health Secretary warned the Government was failing to communicate its achievements, and presenting itself as the “maintenance department for the country”.
Speaking to the New Statesman, 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 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.”
Pressed further on the comments today, Mr Streeting told LBC: “It’s not a criticism of the Prime Minister. It is a challenge to all of us. All of us in government – in the Cabinet in particular – have a responsibility to get the government’s message across.
“And sometimes what we’re guilty of is coming on and listing a whole load of stuff we’ve done – now that’s a good thing because we’ve done loads of stuff since the election to deliver our manifesto.”
But he added: “The problem with big long shopping lists is you can’t always remember what’s on it and people kind of walk away thinking ‘I’ve kind of heard some stuff they are doing, but I can’t quite remember what it’s about’. We’ve got to be much better at putting an account of what the government is about and who it is for.”