What is Wes Streeting up to? For years – decades, in fact – the answer to that question was always, “He wants to be prime minister”.
The question itself was generally asked when Streeting was positioning himself in a manner that looked rather clever, rather strategic and rather like someone thinking not just of their current job but of their future prospects, too. Now that he is closer to that top job than ever before, though, the former health secretary is behaving in a less predictable manner.
Previously easy to pigeonhole as a Blairite, Streeting has, this week, proposed a form of wealth tax, which takes him much further to the left of his party than usual. He wants to reform capital gains tax to equalise the bands with income tax, a move that he believes could raise around £12bn.
It’s a different kind of wealth tax to the one espoused by the Greens, but it isn’t what you’d expect to hear from someone like Streeting – unless, of course, they were trying to endear themselves to a party membership that’s more left-wing than them and which is also far more enamoured with Andy Burnham.
The effect that Burnham has had on the whole Labour Party is quite extraordinary. As well as dragging Streeting across the political spectrum, the Mayor of Greater Manchester has also pushed the Government into new – and baffling – policy positions. It would have been inconceivable a year ago that the Treasury would be asking supermarkets to freeze prices on essential goods. But now that Burnham is running against Sir Keir Starmer, his brand of anti-market Labour politics is suddenly something ministers feel they have to take seriously.
