Wes Streeting prepares to launch leadership challenge against Keir Starmer

Wes Streeting is preparing to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer on Thursday if the health secretary can secure the support of enough MPs to trigger a contest. Streeting’s move to force a race has sparked a frantic scramble on the left of Labour to find a candidate to oppose him, with Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner both possible contenders. The health secretary, who is considered to be on the Blairite right of the party, has been organising an attempt to oust the prime minister for days since Labour’s disastrous election results, despite his friends insisting he did not want to make the first move. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, is the favoured replacement for Starmer by many on the soft left, but does not yet have a seat despite trying to persuade several MPs to stand down for him. His latest hopes are said to be Afzal Khan or Jeff Smith, both Manchester MPs, although their friends denied it. If they were to step aside, it would be difficult for Burnham to fight a byelection and enter parliament in time for any leadership contest. With Labour on the brink of civil war, Keir Starmer was calling ministers and MPs into his office in parliament to plead with them not to allow a competition to be triggered. He told MPs that “we can’t let a leadership contest plunge us into chaos” and that a “challenge would 100% do that”. …