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Health secretary Wes Streeting has criticised his colleagues’ “technocratic” approach and called for better “storytelling” from Britain’s Labour government in the latest sign of tension in the cabinet.
Although Streeting did not mention Sir Keir Starmer by name, the comments are likely to be seen as a shot across the bows of the prime minister, whose popularity has slumped in recent months.
Last month Downing Street aides briefed a handful of journalists that Starmer would defy any attempts to topple him through a leadership contest. At least one suggested that Streeting was among senior figures “on manoeuvres” for the leadership, an idea the health secretary vehemently denied.
In an interview with the New Statesman published on Thursday, Streeting compared Labour to a “maintenance company” which was failing to inspire voters.
“I feel like on one hand, since we’ve come into government, we’ve actually done a huge amount that we said we’d do . . . But that’s not reflected in the polls, and I don’t think it’s even reflected in our storytelling. I think we sell ourselves short,” he said.
“The problem with that kind of practical, technocratic approach is that if someone else comes along and says, ‘Well, I’ve got a maintenance company too, and mine’s cheaper’, why wouldn’t people go, ‘OK, well, we’ll give that maintenance team a try’?”
Instead he argued that Labour needed to focus more on “values” so that people “understand the choice that they face at the next general election”.
Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, has made a virtue of his disinterest in the razzmatazz of politics, insisting that he would rather be “getting on with the job”.
But a poll published in September by Ipsos found net satisfaction with Starmer at minus 66 per cent, lower than Rishi Sunak and Sir John Major, the previous record holders at minus 59.
Streeting — considered a frontrunner to replace Starmer — is popular with Labour members despite being seen as a “Blairite” on the right of the party. But he held on to his east London seat of Ilford North with a majority of just 528 last year, narrowly holding off a pro-Palestine independent candidate.
At the weekend Streeting’s aides dismissed fresh speculation of a potential joint leadership ticket with former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner as a “silly season” story.
Streeting said in the New Statesman interview that Labour performed best when it included both centrists and leftwingers.
“We’ve got to be a party that is about investing in public services, but also modernising public services so they change with the times and meet changing needs in our society,” he said.