The Number 10 spokesman has refused to confirm Wes Streeting will continue as Health Secretary until the next election. Asked at the Lobby briefing of political journalists, the spokesman simply said he “would not go through the Cabinet on that“. Although he did say the Prime Minister still retains confidence in a man who thinks the government “has no growth plan“, but wouldn’t go any further. There’s the kiss of death…
As for Streeting upsetting the Met by releasing his WhatsApp messages to Mandelson last night, the spokesman said “we’ve been clear throughout that we are working with the Met, you’ve got the Met’s statement this morning“. A statement which warns “it is vital due process is followed” and no other Cabinet minister gets any bright ideas. The government’s position hasn’t changed for a few weeks apparently, even though a leading member of that government went rogue last night…
Hacks pointed out Number 10 had previously committed to retaining Rachel Reeves as Chancellor for the full Parliamentary term. David Lammy received the same guarantee when he was Foreign Secretary shortly before being demoted moved to the Justice brief. As Guido reported this morning, there were jittery plans within Number 10 overnight to sack Streeting to reassert Starmer’s authority…
Speaking at an IPPR think tank event in London, the Health Secretary compared striking junior doctors to mutinous sailors.
“I feel like we’ve turned the ship, the boat’s going in the right direction, except some of the crew are trying to row in one direction while the rest of us are going in the other. You can’t make progress that way. We are seeing an improving NHS, and we’ve seen improvement despite resident doctors’ strikes, but the fact is, performance would have been better and there would have been more money to invest in staff and services if the BMA hadn’t been undertaking the strike action.”