Health Secretary Wes Streeting launched a passionate defence of Keir Starmer as he branded ‘mischief making’ talk about the Prime Minister’s position a ‘load of old rubbish’
Wes Streeting reacted with fury when he was asked if he’d ever want to be Prime Minister and slammed the “mischief making” of the Sky News host.
The Health Secretary launched a passionate defence of Keir Starmer as he branded talk about the PM’s position a “load of old rubbish”. It comes as Mr Starmer faces questions over the direction of his government after a series of U-turns on winter fuel payments and welfare.
Asked by Sky News’ Trevor Phillips whether he’d ever want the “top job”, Mr Streeting hit back firmly: “I know exactly what you’re up to, and it’s mischief making, and it’s a load of rubbish, and I’m not entertaining it.”
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He continued: “The fact is that we have got, in Keir Starmer, a Prime Minister who is delivering real change in our country. Of course, it takes time, and I’m not pretending for a moment that all of the problems in our country have been solved, far from it.
“Even on the NHS, where I think we’ve made real progress in our first year, there is so much more to do. There’s not a hint of complacency, but we came in to change the country, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Defending his boss, Mr Streeting praised Mr Starmer having brought back Labour from the depths of despair after its catastrophic performance at the 2019 General Election. The Cabinet minister went on: “And the final thing I’d say about Keir is that, as well as being a thoroughly decent person, he did something that no one thought he could do, which was to win the Labour leadership and lead us back from the worst defeat since 1935 (at the 2019 election) to winning that big election victory last year.
“He’s shown real leadership on the world stage and has gotten credit for the way in which he’s tried to bring Europe and the United States together to tackle the world’s problems.
“He’s also showing real leadership at home to reform our public services and to create a fairer, more equal, more just society. That’s what this Labour Government is about. We’ve barely just begun. Change has begun, but the best is still to come.”
Next weekend will mark a year since Mr Starmer won a landslide election victory. But now, the PM is battling flagging poll ratings, rebellious Labour MPs and the surge of Nigel Farage ’s Reform UK.
Some Labour MPs have grown uneasy over the direction of the Government, culminating in a major rebellion over welfare cuts. The PM was last week forced into a climbdown over plans to cut Personal Independent Payments to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Commons. He had faced losing a crunch vote on his welfare legislation next week after 126 backbenchers signed a rebel amendment.
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