Streeting, who is on the party’s right, had long been rumoured to be gathering support for tilt at leadership
Wes Streeting has quit the cabinet as health secretary and called on Keir Starmer to resign as prime minister, saying there should now be a leadership contest.
Streeting, who is on the party’s right, has long been gathering support for a challenge and has spent the week gathering names of MPs for his nomination.
But in his letter to Starmer, Streeting did not launch his own challenge and instead called for the prime minister to resign and allow a formal leadership contest to take place with a broad range of candidates, a suggestion he should allow the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to fight the contest.
He criticised Starmer’s determination to stay, saying “your heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics.”
