{"id":626275,"date":"2025-12-11T12:51:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T12:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626275\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T12:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T12:51:19","slug":"wes-streeting-im-pretty-frustrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/626275\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting: \u201cI\u2019m pretty frustrated\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Photo by Peter Flude For The New Statesman<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting is still finishing his Friday lunch when I walk into the caf\u00e9. He and his adviser are deep in conversation, their heads close together, when they meet my gaze and abruptly stop. I have arrived early, to get a table and prepare my thoughts. Streeting clearly had the same idea.<\/p>\n

It is an awkward start. We make small talk as the Health Secretary polishes off his grilled chicken, rice, salad and halloumi; the staff here know his order. He comes to the same place every Friday, and returns with his partner, Joe Dancey, at the weekend. This is his home \u2013 the east London constituency of Ilford North, on the border with Essex. Suburban and diverse, it\u2019s only half an hour from central London on the Tube, but it\u2019s a different world to the Christmas soir\u00e9es of Westminster where I have been bumping into him all week. Streeting is slightly less gregarious today than the showbiz, larger-than-life character who is often among the last to leave a party. He is fun, self-deprecating, quick-witted \u2013 but there\u2019s a seriousness too. I get the sense during our conversation he is remembering the points he wants to hit: on the economy, on Nigel Farage, on where Labour is going wrong. This is someone thinking seriously about Labour\u2019s predicament.<\/p>\n

Our meeting takes place nearly a month after Streeting faced an attempted political assassination. In one of the worst weeks for Labour since entering office, Keir Starmer\u2019s allies accused Streeting<\/a> of an imminent plot to overthrow the Prime Minister. Their accusations landed the evening before Streeting was due to face TV and radio interviewers on the morning broadcast round. \u201cIt sort of came from the blue,\u201d Streeting says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t understand what on Earth they were thinking. Putting to one side the attempted drive-by on me, I could not understand the political strategy of people who purport to be the Prime Minister\u2019s allies going out and saying he\u2019s fighting for his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streeting counter-attacked on TV and radio the next morning, denying the accusations with colourful references to Celebrity Traitors and taking swipes at a \u201ctoxic culture\u201d in No 10. \u201cHe had them on toast,\u201d one Labour MP joked of his performance. Streeting insists he\u2019s barely given the incident another thought. \u201cI\u2019ve just sort of cracked on with the job since,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cIt\u2019s water off a duck\u2019s back.\u201d Sure.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Treat yourself or a friend this Christmas to a New Statesman subscription for just \u00a32 <\/p>\n

The reality, laid bare by that messy week, is that Starmer is indeed fighting for his job and everyone knows it. Labour, languishing in the polls, is having a torrid time in office and a leadership contest is widely expected at some point in 2026. Privately, cabinet ministers barely pretend that the party isn\u2019t in deep trouble. Over the course of our interview, Streeting doesn\u2019t either. \u201cI\u2019m pretty frustrated, to be honest,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI feel like on one hand, since we\u2019ve come into government, we\u2019ve actually done a huge amount that we said we\u2019d do\u2026 But that\u2019s not reflected in the polls, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s even reflected in our storytelling. I think we sell ourselves short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour is in danger of presenting itself as the \u201cmaintenance department for the country\u201d, he says. \u201cThe problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve got a maintenance company too, and mine\u2019s cheaper,\u2019 why wouldn\u2019t people go, \u2018OK, well, we\u2019ll give that maintenance team a try\u2019?\u201d He doesn\u2019t name Starmer, but the critique of the Prime Minister\u2019s \u201cpractical, technocratic\u201d leadership is clear.<\/p>\n

Streeting has denied plotting against the Labour leader. But when we speak, he strikes me as someone planning for what may lie ahead. I meet a cabinet minister ranging beyond his brief, thinking seriously about what his party needs to do to win the next election \u2013 and beginning to outline an alternative to that \u201cmaintenance department\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

Streeting grew up in poverty in Stepney, east London. His mother, who was born in prison, had him at the age of 18. He remembers, aged seven or eight, watching her putting items back on the shelf at the supermarket because she couldn\u2019t afford them. He had a fiver in his pocket that his grandfather had given him. \u201cI could see she was really anxious about it. So I gave my mum my [the] \u00a35 note\u2026 and she just burst into tears.\u201d He pauses. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a horrible position for a parent to be in where your kids are helping you pay for the shopping.\u201d His mother \u201calways made sure we didn\u2019t go without\u201d, often forgoing things herself to provide for him and his siblings. But his childhood was marked by visits to his maternal grandfather in prison, embarrassment at being on free school meals, cockroaches and an empty fridge at home. One winter, his mum left her partner the night before Christmas Eve, and they bundled into a car in search of somewhere to stay. They spent Christmas Day on a bleak, empty caravan site in Kent. His presents that year were a Star Trek mug and a satsuma.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no coincidence that in the cabinet, among the people pushing hard to abolish the two-child limit, were me and Bridget [Phillipson, the Education Secretary], because we have both lived through child poverty,\u201d he says. \u201cFor all the ups and downs of recent months, lifting half a million children out of poverty by lifting the two-child limit is something I will always be proud of.\u201d He is clear-eyed about the reality that it isn\u2019t a politically popular move. But he says there\u2019s not just a moral case for it but also a pragmatic one, of which he is proof: \u201cHere I am as the living evidence of what happens when you invest in kids and give them a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streeting was a gregarious, confident child, despite all that was going on at home. He jokes about donning a little tunic and a cardboard sword for his stage debut, starring in The Nutcracker at primary school, \u201cswashbuckling with this kid in the year below\u201d. The following year he played Scrooge in the Christmas play. At secondary school, he had high hopes for a major role again, and was cast as Tiny Tim. \u201cI was quite pleased, because I\u2019d obviously heard of the character\u2026 Except it turns out Tiny Tim only has two lines, and they are both the same: \u2018God bless us, everyone.\u2019 I was absolutely fuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streeting says he has \u201cnever really had\u201d that \u201cvoice in the back of your head that says you\u2019re not good enough\u201d. Instead, his background has given him \u201ca bit of a chip on my shoulder\u201d and a determination to prove he can do anything the posher kids can. He visits schools in his constituency and tells the pupils \u201cnot to ever feel held back by their backgrounds or the conditions they\u2019re living in\u201d. He went into politics for them, \u201cto make sure that children from backgrounds like mine have the same choices and chances in life as those from the most privileged backgrounds\u201d.<\/p>\n

With that determination, Streeting has risen and risen, from a high-performing state academy school, to Cambridge University, to the cabinet. He has a certain star quality. \u201cHe\u2019s showbiz,\u201d as one admirer put it to me recently. \u201cHe is far and away our best communicator,\u201d said another. No one denies his strengths as a performer, but some colleagues dislike his politics, seeing him as too centrist. The question is whether Labour members would elect a leader from that tradition. If there is a leadership contest in 2026, opponents to his left say he is the wrong person to unite progressives in the way that will be needed to fight Farage.<\/p>\n

He makes his counter-argument over the course of our conversation. Labour has \u201cthe right answers, because we have the right values\u201d. The key is communicating those, he says, \u201cso that people understand the choice that they face at the next general election\u201d. This is his alternative to the \u201ctechnocratic approach\u201d he worries Labour is currently taking. On healthcare, he says the next election will not be about \u201cwho\u2019s going to be more effective at cutting the waiting lists. This is going to be a question of who believes in a National Health Service and its fundamental values.\u201d Only Labour believes in the core principle of care based on need rather than the ability to pay, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour performs at its best when we are a party of both the left and the centre,\u201d he says, returning to the point again and again. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be a party that is about investing in public services, but also modernising public services so they change with the times and meet changing needs in our society.\u201d Labour should champion attracting global talent and welcoming refugees, while also being \u201ca party of strong borders\u201d. It is unmistakeably Blairite, a \u201cThird Way\u201d vision. Now, as then, that involves difficult messages for his party.<\/p>\n

Streeting strikes a similar note on the economy. Zack Polanski \u201cwould take us on a left-wing joy ride\u201d; both he and Farage are \u201cbig risks to this country and to our economy\u201d. In a swipe at Polanski that could be equally applied to Andy Burnham, Streeting says he has been \u201cfrustrated\u201d by the way some people talk about markets as a \u201cbinary choice between helplessness and recklessness\u201d \u2013 either \u201cyou have no flexibility to make your own political choices, or you say: \u2018Sod the markets, borrowing doesn\u2019t matter, you don\u2019t have to repay debt.\u2019\u201d He says neither \u201cis serious or true. Markets are rational actors. If they think you\u2019re a country that doesn\u2019t pay its debts, your borrowing costs go up and your ability to do progressive things is diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streeting wants to push for growth, in part because Labour should not be \u201ccomplacent about the tax burden in this country\u201d, and taxes can only be cut for working people \u201cif we get the economy really motoring\u201d. He is unapologetically pro-business: \u201cGovernments can help create the conditions for growth, but it\u2019s business, enterprise and innovation that really drives [it]\u2026 We\u2019ve got to make sure as progressives that we recognise that in order to redistribute wealth, you\u2019ve got to create it.\u201d Again, it\u2019s strikingly reminiscent of Blair.<\/p>\n

But Streeting, like his probable opponent, Angela Rayner, has a different backstory to the New Labour leader, and can speak from experience in his attacks on Farage. Coming from a working-class family, \u201cIt sticks in my throat,\u201d he says, \u201cto see someone who hasn\u2019t got the first clue about the lives that we lead, acting as a sort of spokesperson for\u2026 Britain\u2019s working class.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all that Streeting makes arguments that parts of his party won\u2019t necessarily love, he has made overtures to the left in recent months, becoming one of the most vocal members of the cabinet on Gaza and in calling out racism. \u201cWe\u2019re certainly not going to win by out-reforming Reform,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we will certainly not be true to our values and our soul if we try and out-reform Reform. We can take them on and beat them with values-driven Labour arguments. We can reunite the centre and the left, and I think that is the historic responsibility that we have.\u201d He launches into the most rousing part of his vision: \u201cIt will be Labour or Reform, and that is a battle not just between left and right, but between right and wrong, between progressives and reactionaries, and between hope or hate. We cannot let them win.\u201d Everyone in the Labour Party agrees with the sentiment. The question is whether they believe he has the right answers.<\/p>\n

Christmas these days is a world away from the satsuma and the Star Trek mug in a Kentish caravan park. Not least because, as Health Secretary, it\u2019s the busiest time of the year. Streeting is worried about the \u201cirresponsible\u201d, \u201cunnecessary\u201d strikes by resident doctors over five days in the run-up to Christmas. They represent \u201ca different order of magnitude of risk\u201d compared with past strike action, because of the pressures on the health service at this time of year. \u201cI am really worried about patient safety,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He will spend Christmas Day with family in Essex, then he and Joe will visit more family in Cornwall, Sheffield and Lancashire, taking \u201ca bit of a busman\u2019s holiday\u201d by popping in to local hospitals \u201con very low-key visits, just to see, warts and all, what the pressures are like over winter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Streeting nearly lost his seat last year, his majority slashed to 528 by an independent standing in protest against Labour\u2019s position on Gaza. He wasn\u2019t allowed to mount a concerted fight locally after he got \u201ca proper bollocking from one of the leaders of our general election campaign\u201d, threatening \u201cto turn off our access to the voter contact base\u201d. Morgan McSweeney, the head of the campaign, ran an aggressive strategy focusing only on target seats: incumbents were not to door-knock in their own patches. Streeting says his \u201cmistake was listening to the national machine when I should have followed my own gut instinct. I will not make that mistake again.\u201d Nor will he make a \u201cchicken run\u201d to a safer seat at the next election. To speculate like that is to \u201ctotally misunderstand me\u201d, he says. \u201cI\u2019m not someone who cuts and runs. I am not going to give in to that kind of reactionary sectarian politics we saw here.\u201d He is not leaving. \u201cI live here. I care about this community\u2026 I\u2019m determined to make sure we take on [independents] at the ballot box in May, and I\u2019ll be here taking them on at the next general election as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life now is completely unlike so many of the things I experienced growing up,\u201d Streeting reflects. He will take his niece to see the musical Wicked over the Christmas holidays. Last week, he brought her \u201ca massive bag of presents and a big, massive chocolate advent calendar\u201d. He doesn\u2019t take it for granted, being able to afford such things. \u201cI\u2019m now in this privileged position where I can not only pay back my debt to society and to the British taxpayer who funded me, fed me, clothed me, educated me; I can also pay it forward to the next generation as well, both through my taxes but also through public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

It prompts the question: is 2026 the year he becomes prime minister? Streeting laughs. Then there is a long pause. \u201cI\u2019m definitely not indulging any of that. I think we had quite enough of that with the drive-by the other week. The level of silliness we saw [then] was like panto season come early. So I think the answer to your question is: oh no, he\u2019s not.\u201d Streeting knows his panto, though. And he knows what the audience shouts back. <\/p>\n

[Further reading: Nigel Farage\u2019s American dream<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n

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