Wes Streeting on why Keir Starmer cannot save himself or his country
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is now hard to imagine that just three weeks ago, Wes Streeting was still serving in Keir Starmer's cabinet. As Health Secretary, Streeting gave the PM one of his biggest success stories from Labour's so far deeply troubled time in government - getting waiting lists down, and dragging the NHS into the 21st century.
In the short time since he left role, he has become one of Starmer's biggest problems. His criticism of the PM is blistering, his analysis of where Labour has gone wrong is compelling, and his finger is twitching over the leadership contest trigger, waiting - so he says - for Andy Burnham to get into the arena.
Streeting has long been talked up as a future Labour Prime Minister, but bruising recent membership polling shows the Labour party faithful are still far from convinced by his pitch. So why is he so convinced that this is a fight worth having?
In this extended interview with Lewis, he explains why he fears that Keir Starmer, a man he respects, will become the "midwife" for a dangerous new kind of politics if he doesn't step aside - regardless of who replaces him.
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.6 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.8 | Nigel Farage is an English nationalist. |
| 0:15.6 | This is the type of propaganda that is reminiscent of the 1930s. |
| 0:20.1 | Would you do it much differently to Kea Stama or would you have your own approach? I mean, it must be something you've thought about. It must be an intriguing prospect. Yeah, but let's say what you mean and mean what you say. Is Musk a threat to British democracy? Of course he is. He's meddling in it. And that's the other thing I think we should say very confidently. Bugger off. We are at a weird moment in British politics, a sort of breath. You'd probably call it |
| 0:40.0 | an oasis, if you're Andy Burnham. A moment possibly where one era hasn't quite given way to another, |
| 0:46.5 | but where we can almost feel it closing in. A PM still in office with a leadership contest |
| 0:52.3 | that has started, but also hasn't quite started. |
| 0:55.9 | A by-election being fought for all intents and purposes as a means to replace him the highest |
| 1:01.4 | possible national stakes but which is also about the redevelopment of Win Stanley Hall or traffic |
| 1:07.3 | problems on Ashton High Street. And another weirdness still. |
| 1:11.5 | Former Health Secretary Westreting, |
| 1:13.4 | a man who says he has the votes to start a contest, |
| 1:16.5 | wants a leadership contest, |
| 1:17.9 | but isn't going to start that contest |
| 1:19.4 | until the man that everyone thinks will beat him |
| 1:22.0 | is elected to Parliament to stand in that contest. |
| 1:25.8 | You still with me? |
| 1:26.8 | Either way, Westre Reading is at a deeply |
| 1:29.7 | weird and interesting moment of his own. Having left the cabinet, telling the PM to his face |
| 1:36.1 | that he should go, he is now in the position of being able to say what he really thinks. He's famously |
| 1:42.1 | a pretty straight talker. And my word, what you're about to hear |
... |
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