The Past Imperfect is a podcast from The Times hosted by Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson. Hear stories from outstanding people about how moments in their early lives informed their identities, their careers and their drive to succeed.

Wes Streeting is a Labour politician who is already being tipped as a potential future leader of his party. He is a former president of the National Union of Students, who worked for the Blairite campaign group Progress before winning his Ilford North parliamentary seat from the Conservatives in 2015. He then served as shadow Secretary of State for child poverty before becoming shadow health secretary.

Wes Streeting is a centrist who supporters say could win back the party’s traditional working-class voters without alienating middle England. He is a gay Christian Cambridge graduate who is also tough on crime and patriotic.

But this rising star of the Labour Party hasn’t had an easy time climbing the ladder. Rachel and Alice sit down with Wes to talk about his childhood experiences growing up in poverty on a council estate in East London and how grandparents, who spent time in prison, impacted his life. 

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