{"id":964941,"date":"2026-05-16T17:48:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/964941\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T17:48:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T17:48:42","slug":"wes-streeting-says-britains-future-one-day-lies-back-in-the-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/964941\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting says Britain’s future one day lies ‘back in the European Union’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MP outlines his vision of the Labour Party’s future in his first speech since resigning as health secretary.<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting said Britain’s future ‘lies back in the European Union’ as he spoke out days after resigning as health secretary<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Progress think tank\u2019s conference in London on Saturday, Mr Streeting described Britain’s 2020 departure from the European Union<\/a> as a ‘catastrophic mistake.’<\/p>\n

He said “the Vote Leave campaign deluded itself into thinking that the UK could forge a global free-trade nirvana, as if we still had the East-India company at our disposal.”<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting added: “The biggest economic opportunity we have is on our doorstep.” He said Britain must pursue a ‘new special relationship’ with the European Union and signalled he wanted to see the country rejoin the trade bloc in the future.<\/p>\n

“Britain’s future lies with Europe, and one day, back in the European Union”, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting also confirmed he would stand in any future leadership election against Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I\u2019ll be standing,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting also said he did have enough support among MPs to trigger a contest, but suggested his challenge would \u201clack legitimacy\u201d without Mr Burnham being given a chance to return to Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might have been the self-interested thing to do for candidates who are in Parliament presently, but it wasn\u2019t in the party\u2019s interest and wasn\u2019t in the national interest,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In his speech at the conference, the ex-health secretary hit out at what he called an \u201covercautiousness\u201d in Labour<\/a>, which began when the party was in opposition and was carried over into Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of a willingness to challenge ideas and kick the tyres, debate was viewed as division and shut down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Ilford North MP added: \u201cThat\u2019s why we need a proper contest where all candidates can put their best foot forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got to be a battle of ideas so that whoever wins comes out stronger for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MP outlines his vision of the Labour Party’s future in his first speech since resigning as health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":964942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,269467],"class_list":{"0":"post-964941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-makerfield-by-election-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116585516701521658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=964941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=964941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}