'What the hell are we doing?' Wes Streeting on his promise to young people, resigning from government, and wanting to be PM
Political Thinking with Nick Robinson
BBC
4.6 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Labour leadership contender and former health secretary Wes Streeting on what prompted his resignation, the challenges of being a working class politician, and his wealth tax plan.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts |
| 0:04.5 | Newscast is on the face of it, a podcast about the news. |
| 0:11.2 | But it's also perhaps the world's most athletic podcast, |
| 0:14.0 | we have BBC correspondents dashing in and out, |
| 0:16.3 | ready to give us a deeper understanding of the biggest stories of the day. |
| 0:19.9 | Thankfully, we let them catch their breath before we actually start recording the podcast. |
| 0:24.2 | Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:27.5 | Hello and welcome to political thinking. |
| 0:29.6 | We're in the fight of our lives, a fight against nationalism, a fight we risk losing. |
| 0:35.2 | So said my guest on political thinking this week, |
| 0:43.1 | Wes Streeting, explaining why he'd resign from the cabinet, from his job as health secretary, |
| 0:49.0 | and now wants to challenge Kirstama, Andy Burnham and anybody else who wants to be the next Labour leader, |
| 0:52.6 | to a contest to be our next Prime Minister. |
| 0:58.2 | The man who describes himself as this kid from a council estate in Stepney in East London made a call to arms in his resignation speech in the House of Commons, |
| 1:03.8 | asking the country to fight for a better future for the young in particular. |
| 1:08.8 | And telling his party, they needed to recognise |
| 1:11.1 | the country faces an emergency. |
| 1:13.6 | Urgency is now required. |
| 1:24.1 | West reading. |
| 1:25.4 | Welcome back to political thinking. |
| 1:27.3 | Thank you for having me. |
| 1:28.9 | It sounded to me, listening and watching to your resignation speech, |
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