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Health Secretary Wes Streeting(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\nThe Health Secretary was asked about his stated \u201cdesire\u201d to be Prime Minister one day amid a Downing Street briefing warHealth Secretary Wes Streeting(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Health Secretary refused to confirm or deny whether he has ambitions for the Labour<\/a> leadership or the top job as Prime Minister, amid speculation about a leadership challenge from him against Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n Health Secretary Wes Streeting joked with delegates at the NHS<\/a> Providers\u2019 conference in Manchester, saying he wanted to ‘address the story in the news’.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI do want to address this leadership speculation upfront, because I know there is concern about how long the man in the top job has left.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, let me reassure everyone that I\u2019m doing everything I can to persuade (NHS chief executive) Jim Mackey to stick around for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n Mr Streeting told health leaders at the NHS Providers\u2019 conference that the briefing about a potential leadership challenge to journalists<\/a> overnight about the Labour leadership was \u201cjuvenile\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe bizarre thing about some juvenile briefing overnight is that it\u2019s people in Number 10 who\u2019ve said the Prime Minister is fighting for his job.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s firstly a helpful or constructive thing to say, and I also don\u2019t think it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about his stated \u201cdesire\u201d to be prime minister one day, Mr Streeting said he was enjoying his role as Health Secretary.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely not going to say anything today that adds to the silly season going on down south,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Health Secretary declined to say whether he believed Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was responsible for a \u201ctoxic\u201d culture in No 10.<\/p>\n Mr Streeting said: \u201cI am not going to add to the toxic culture by contributing to the toxic culture and going after individuals.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that is a constructive or positive thing to do.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I would say to Morgan McSweeney is there wouldn\u2019t be a Labour Government without him.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier today, Wes Streeting<\/a> referred to the recent BBC<\/a> series Celebrity Traitors, as he described rumours of a plot to oust the Prime Minister as ‘the worst attack on a faithful since Joe Marler was kicked out’.<\/p>\n He categorically denied he was plotting to oust the Prime Minister, and insisted Sir Keir should sack the people who were behind the ‘self-defeating’ rumours.<\/p>\n The comments follow a flurry of late-night briefing from within Number 10 in which allies of the Prime Minister came out fighting on his behalf, amid fears his job could be under threat after the Budget in two weeks’ time.<\/p>\n Mr Streeting told the BBC’s Today programme that those responsible for the rumours did not follow the Prime Minister’s ‘model and style of leadership’.<\/p>\n