By George Eaton
Copyright newstatesman
Wes Streeting has never been shy of deviating from a script. As he prepared to address an NHS conference for LGBT workers, the Health Secretary ripped up the speaking notes that his department had provided – a routine list of stats and policies – and resolved to make an argument instead.
It was “laughable”, he went on to say, to claim that rising homophobia and racism was merely a healthy expression of “free speech”, adding that he understood why some people were questioning “whether this government is really on our side”.
Streeting, in other words, departed from the official government line, delivered by Business Secretary Peter Kyle at the weekend, who said of Tommy Robinson’s far-right rally: “What we saw yesterday was over 100,000 people who were expressing freedom of association, freedom of speech and proving that both of those things are alive and well in this country”.
There was dismay inside Labour at that initial response – “weak as piss” was how one senior source described it to me – and by the afternoon Keir Starmer had declared that he would “never surrender” the flag to “those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division” (insiders question why Kyle was not furnished with such lines earlier that day).
Allies of Streeting say that his intervention reflected his belief that Labour has to beat the populist right in “the battle of ideas” and that it is a sign of a “strong government” when cabinet ministers are permitted to make distinctive arguments (Tim Allan, No 10’s new executive director of communications, is thought to be more sympathetic to this approach than his predecessor James Lyons).
Making arguments is something Streeting has never struggled with. Back in July, he used the unlikely forum of Health Questions to call for the recognition of Palestine “while there’s still a state of Palestine left to recognise” (a position Starmer would adopt a week later).
No one in Labour doubts that such interventions are sincere but, as anticipation of the next leadership contest grows, Streeting’s positions have drawn increasing attention from left and right. “He’s on manoeuvres,” a government source says.
That’s a familiar charge: Streeting has made no secret of his leadership ambitions (and credits Starmer with being relaxed about “tall poppies” in his cabinet). Last year, one friend quipped to me that the Health Secretary’s personal positions, such as opposition to assisted dying and support for intervention in Syria in 2013, were hardly designed to endear him to the Labour membership. But support for Palestinian statehood and full-throated opposition to racism and homophobia? Even those who regard Streeting as a Blairite running dog will cheer that.
Yet the only consistency, allies say, is that he is prepared to “commit the sin of speaking his mind”. Streeting’s admirers, widespread among the influential 2024 intake, use another word for that: leadership. At a time when some fear that Labour is losing its voice, the Health Secretary is finding his. For Starmer – who will deliver his conference speech in 13 days’ time – the task is to prove that he can do the same.
This piece first appeared in the Morning Call newsletter; receive it every morning by subscribing on Substack here
