Streeting quits, Labour leadership battle remains unsettled
Wes Streeting’s exit raises the pressure on Keir Starmer, but Angela Rayner’s renewed viability and Andy Burnham’s unresolved path back to Westminster leave Labour without a clear heir.
Wes Streeting’s resignation as health secretary has made Labour’s leadership crisis harder to contain, but it has not settled who is best placed to succeed Keir Starmer.
On Thursday, Streeting quit the cabinet and told the prime minister it was clear he would not lead Labour into the next general election. Yet he stopped short of launching a formal challenge himself. Instead, he called for a contest with “the best possible field of candidates”, pointing to a broader race rather than an immediate showdown.
That matters because Streeting’s move looks more like a warning shot than a decisive capture of the field. He has shown he is willing to break publicly with Starmer, but he has not turned that rupture into a declared bid. Earlier approved reporting had already suggested he faced a narrow road with Labour members. One survey of more than 1,000 members found that 42% would pick Andy Burnham to succeed Starmer, against 11% for Streeting, with Burnham also far ahead on favourability.
Angela Rayner looks better placed than she did a day ago. HMRC has cleared her of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs after settling £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty, without a penalty, and the issue that forced her resignation from the cabinet last year no longer hangs over her in the same way. Rayner has said Starmer should “reflect on” stepping aside and indicated that she would “play my part” in any contest. That does not make her the automatic favourite, but it restores her as a serious option.
Andy Burnham may still be the most politically interesting alternative, but he remains the least straightforward candidate. His backers want Labour’s ruling body to allow a long enough contest for the Greater Manchester mayor to return to parliament through a byelection. That route is uncertain, and party figures are already warning that the rules should not be rewritten to suit one contender. If a contest began immediately, Burnham’s problem would not be popularity but eligibility.
The clearest sign of the internal mood comes from party members rather than the wider electorate. A LabourList/Survation members’ poll reported on Thursday suggested Starmer would lose easily to Burnham in a head-to-head contest, lose narrowly to Rayner, and beat Streeting comfortably.
That is not a public verdict on who should be prime minister. But it does suggest that Streeting’s resignation, by itself, has not made him Labour’s obvious successor. For now, the party has a resigned contender without a declared bid, a newly viable rival, and a popular outsider who still needs a route back to Westminster.
GOING FURTHER
Streeting resigns as health secretary but stops short of launching leadership bid - UK politics live | The Guardian
Angela Rayner cleared by HMRC over tax affairs paving the way for potential leadership bid | The Guardian
Leadership rules should ‘not be tweaked’ to let Burnham run for PM, Labour NEC member says | The Guardian
Wes Streeting faces narrow road to Labour members’ favour | The Guardian
UK health secretary resigns, setting up a Labour leadership challenge to Keir Starmer | AP
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▪ This piece was first published in Europeans TODAY on 14 May 2026.
▪ Cover: Flickr/Number 10. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)
