Why Wes Streeting should be Labour’s next leader
A shambolic, scandal-ridden Conservative government is presiding over a cost-of-living crisis and things are set to get worse. The economic outlook is bleak, and the government seems devoid of ideas. The time is ripe for Labour to sweep it aside and take power for the first time since 2010.
But Keir Starmer doesn’t seem to be the man to seize the opportunity.
In the local elections, Labour’s performance outside London was poor, gaining just 22 seats in England. Starmer has been criticised for being dull, uninspirational and lacking a clear vision. There is no sense of crisis within Labour at him resigning if he is fined over Beergate. His support base has been exposed as quite thin.
A leader with the ability to inspire could reinvigorate Labour and inject a little of the pre-1997 energy and excitement that erupted with the New Labour revolution. The new leader should be a fresh face from the moderate right of the party, with relatively little baggage and a story to tell.
Step forward rising star Wes Streeting.
Unlike Keir Starmer who served in the Shadow Cabinet, Streeting sat on the backbenches during Jeremy Corbyn’s doomed leadership. He is not muddied by association with him nor the racism scandal that engulfed the party. Streeting was a frequent critic of Corbyn and posed difficult questions in the Commons over the handling of anti-Semitism complaints.
Despite this, he is not universally hated by his ideological opponents. Even elements of the barmy far-left are onside. Commentator Owen Jones has known Streeting since his days leading the NUS and believes he is different from what he calls the “soulless Blairites”, possessing a vision that has a “grounding in his experience.”
That experience is his story to tell the nation and it’s a compelling one. While Boris likes to make jibes about Starmer being a lawyer and portray him as elitist, Streeting’s life story would pose a real problem. He was raised in a poor, single-parent household in Stepney, East London. He has had personal challenges and obstacles to overcome unlike anything Etonian Boris has known, and the fact he has got on in life to where he is today, is itself inspirational.
His mother was born in prison and was 18 when she had him. Streeting has memories of poverty, of blackouts when the money for electricity ran out, of an empty fridge and going without, of being embarrassed at getting free school meals. He has memories of visiting his maternal grandfather in prison, where he served time for armed robbery. His grandmother, too, spent a brief period in prison in relation to her husband’s crimes (interestingly sharing a prison cell with Christine Keeler, the model at the centre of the Profumo affair).
Streeting joined Labour aged 16 because of his own experiences, seeing Labour as the best vehicle for addressing the obstacles faced by his family, friends and people he grew up around. It may sound cynical (that’s politics, baby!) but as a political figure he is very easy to sell. He may be relatively young at 39, but this is a man who has been involved in and thinking about politics for a very long time. A man driven by his own life experience to improve the lot of others.
After Starmer’s election as Labour leader in 2020, Streeting joined the shadow Treasury team and has become a favourite of the Labour press office and darling of the commentariat. He makes regular appearances across the media. He is charismatic, likeable, genuine and a very good orator, which has helped him rise quickly, being continually promoted: shadow schools minister, shadow child poverty secretary and, finally, shadow health secretary.
There is a buzz around him as a potential Labour leader, and with begrudged admiration from his left, respect and adoration to his right, and what Owen Jones called a commentariat “love-in”, Streeting has a lot going for him as he builds up momentum. With the right policy platform, there is a sense that Streeting could offer a clear vision for the country in a way that Starmer has so far failed to do.