Streeting launches scathing attack on Starmer - and calls for UK to rejoin EU

Wes Streeting has launched a scathing attack on what he described as Keir Starmer’s “heavy-handed” leadership culture, which he claimed had stifled creative policy thinking in government. Streeting criticised the effectiveness of Labour’s first two years in power – all of which he has spent in cabinet – saying Labour “arrived in government underprepared in too many areas and lacking clarity of vision and direction”. The former health secretary, who is expected to launch a leadership challenge in the coming weeks, also described Starmer’s proposed winter fuel cut – one of the most unpopular policies in the government’s term so far – as a “catastrophe”. In a speech at a leftwing police conference, Streeting said the party had not had a true debate about its directions since the Corbyn era, saying Labour needed a “battle of ideas” in any coming leadership contest. He said: “The moral emergency of antisemitism in our party left little room for intellectual renewal or policy debate on the centre-left. We then had a dishonest leadership contest, followed by an overcautiousness in opposition. “Interesting policy ideas couldn’t be floated because we were too afraid of what the Tories might say, so we said nothing. …