Hours after Wes Streeting quit as health secretary on Thursday, a Labour MP gave up his own seat to make room for Andy Burnham. Josh Simons said he would resign as MP for Makerfield so the Greater Manchester mayor could try to return to Parliament and challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Streeting, 43, announced his departure on X. He said he no longer had “confidence” in Starmer’s leadership, and there was “no doubt” that Labour’s unpopularity was a “major and common factor in our defeat across England, Scotland and Wales” in last week’s local elections.
“It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election, and that Labour MPs and Labour unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism,” he wrote. “It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope that you will facilitate this.”
His announcement stopped short of triggering a formal contest. Streeting did not say whether he had the 81 MPs needed to do that. Four junior ministers, among them Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, have resigned, and more than 80 MPs have urged Starmer to quit or lay out a plan for leaving. Nobody has formally challenged him.
Seat vacated for Burnham
“Today, I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield,” Simons wrote on X. He said he was standing aside so Burnham could “return to his home” and, if elected, push for change.
The seat cannot simply be handed over. A special election must be held, and other parties can contest it. Burnham said he would ask the party’s National Executive Committee for permission to stand in the Makerfield by-election. “There is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester,” he said.
Al Jazeera noted that Streeting is popular on the right of the party but disliked by left-wing members who would prefer Burnham or Angela Rayner. Rayner said on Thursday that tax authorities had cleared her of wrongdoing after she was forced out of the cabinet over underpaid property tax. That decision could open the way for her to stand. She did not call for Starmer to resign, though she said voters were frustrated with how the government was run. Former Labour leader Ed Miliband is also named as a possible challenger.
A new health secretary
Late on Thursday Starmer named James Murray health secretary. Lucy Rigby takes over Murray’s old post as chief secretary to the Treasury. In a letter to Streeting, Starmer wrote: “I am truly sorry you will no longer be sat at the Cabinet table helping to transform our National Health Service.”
A spokesman for the prime minister said Starmer was “purely focused on governing”. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves urged colleagues not to put the economy “at risk” by “plunging the country into chaos” with a leadership challenge.
The local elections cost Labour badly. Reform UK and the Greens made large gains at its expense, Labour lost control of the Welsh parliament for the first time, and it failed to gain ground on the Scottish National Party in Edinburgh. Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said that if the government looks to be squabbling while fuel prices climb because of the US and Israeli war on Iran, some in the party worry it could prompt calls for a general election.
Sources
- Britain’s Health Secretary Streeting resigns as pressure on Starmer grows
- Wes Streeting resigns as health secretary
