Labour must be bolder or it will lose, says Wes Streeting

Labour must be bolder and deliver real change, Wes Streeting has said in his first Commons speech since resigning as health secretary, saying that he quit the government because it was “currently losing” the fight against populist nationalism. Streeting reiterated his view that leaving the EU had been a damaging mistake for the UK, and argued that young people had been let down by a system stacked against them. Streeting resigned last week and called on Keir Starmer to quit as prime minister. It had been expected he would launch a formal leadership challenge, but he seemingly failed to get the necessary support from 80-plus Labour MPs to launch a challenge. In his contribution to the king’s speech debate, Streeting had no direct criticism of Starmer, and praised him for keeping the UK out of the US-Irsaeli war against Iran. But he was very critical of the government’s wider approach, saying it had been too cautious and had allowed parties like Reform UK to hijack the idea of patriotism. “Never waste a minute – that’s been my mantra in government, and it’s why I don’t believe our party has time to waste in government treading water,” he told MPs. “The Labour party was elected to deliver real change. We still can.” In a long section taking aim not just at Reform but also the SNP in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales, Streeting said Starmer’s government had failed to take the battle properly to nationalists. …