UK ex-health minister says will run to replace Starmer

Wes Streeting, who resigned as UK health secretary this week, announced Saturday he will run to replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister, after the party suffered disastrous local election results.

Streeting quit the government on Thursday with a withering assessment of Starmer’s leadership, but no other senior minister followed suit and the 43-year-old MP did not immediately trigger a leadership contest.

Later that day, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham unveiled a bid to become an MP which, if successful, would allow the 56-year-old from the left of the party to stand in that contest.

While still not announcing he has kickstarted the formal leadership challenge process, Streeting confirmed on Saturday he will vie to replace Starmer and become the centre-left Labour’s new leader.

Whoever leads the ruling party, which has a big majority in Britain’s parliament, will by default become prime minister.

“We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I’ll be standing,” Streeting said in a speech and question-and-answer session at a think tank event in London.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, flanked by Commander Clair Haynes, meets with Metropolitan police officers to discuss operational planning ahead of this weekend's planned protests, in the Lambeth area of London on Friday. AFP

Explaining the lack of a formal contest launch, Streeting - from Labour’s right-wing and long thought to covet the premiership - said he wanted “all of the candidates... on the pitch.”

“If we had rushed ahead without giving Andy a chance to stand, the new leader, whether it was me or anyone else, would lack the legitimacy.”

A Labour party leadership contest can be triggered if 81 of its MPs - 20 per cent of the party in parliament - formally back a candidate to challenge Starmer and submit the necessary paperwork.

Starmer, as current leader, would automatically be on the ballot if he wants to defend the challenge.

Labour members and affiliates then get to vote, not just MPs. They rank candidates in order of preference and a contender needs 50 per cent to win.

Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) - which selects the party’s candidates in parliamentary seat elections -said on Friday that it had permitted Burnham “to stand in the candidate selection process” in the by-election in Makerfield, northwest England.

That contest is expected in mid-June at the earliest, meaning any formal leadership challenge is likely to be triggered afterwards.

The political jockeying follows dismal results for Labour in local and regional elections held last week, which have prompted several junior ministers and dozens of the party’s MPs to demand Starmer to step down.

But the beleaguered 63-year UK leader appears to have been granted a stay of execution, of sorts, while Burnham’s fate is decided in the Makerfield by-election.

Burnham told British media Saturday he was prepared to “fight to the highest level.”

Burnham, 56, is seen as Starmer’s biggest would-be rival, partly because he’s perceived to be to the political left of the prime minister.

The mayor is known as the “King of the North,” and his Labour backers will hope that moniker reaps rewards.

Meanwhile it appears Streeting, who delivered a wide-ranging speech at the think tank event, has kicked off a leadership campaign in all but name.

Setting out a fledgling policy platform, he said Brexit was “a catastrophic mistake” and that Britain must pursue a “new special relationship” with the European Union.

He signalled he wanted to see the country rejoin the trade bloc in the future.

$24b HIKE IN DEFENCE SPENDING: Separately, the Times reported ​on Friday that Starmer is expected to approve an increase of 18 billion pounds ($24 billion) in defence ‌spending as he faces a battle for political survival.

The government is still finalising a defence spending plan and ‌will publish it as ‌soon as possible, a spokesperson told Reuters.

The British government’s defence investment plan will aim to deliver equipment and technology to frontline forces quickly while supporting economic ‌growth, the spokesperson said.

Starmer is struggling to hold on to power after a tumultuous week when one of his main rivals in government quit, accusing him of a lack of vision, and others positioned themselves for potential challenges to his leadership.

Starmer is expected to approve ‌the spending boost as soon as next week, The Times said, bringing an end to months of delays and internal rows.

It is unclear how the increase in spending will be funded. However, an unnamed source told The Times it would be “fully affordable.”

Last month, finance minister Rachel Reeves said she did not favour tax ​hikes or ‌higher borrowing to fund increases in defence spending, which has become ‌a priority after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the war in Iran.

Starmer has pledged the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, aiming ‌to lift ‌it to 3% of national output in the next parliament, a move that Britain’s budget watchdog has ‌estimated would require an additional 17.3 billion pounds a year by 2029-30.

Agencies