Wes Streeting has announced he will not stand in the Labour leadership contest and has endorsed Andy Burnham to succeed Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister, in a statement published moments after Burnham formally declared his candidacy on Monday morning.
The endorsement all but guarantees Burnham a coronation. With Starmer’s resignation announced earlier in the day and nominations not opening until 9 July, Streeting’s decision to stand aside removes the only candidate who had publicly suggested he might mount a serious challenge.
Streeting’s statement in full
“After a devastating set of election results in May, the Makerfield by-election has proven that Labour can still win if we have the courage to change,” Streeting wrote. “It was a victory for unity and hope over division and hatred. It was also Andy Burnham’s victory.”
He added: “Having spoken at length with Andy in recent days, I’m convinced that there is a place for those ideas under his leadership; that he is committed to building an inclusive party that draws on the best of our political traditions; and that he can win the fight of our lives against the forces of nationalism. We could spend the summer exaggerating small differences, or we can roll up our sleeves and help him to deliver the change our party and our country needs.”
Streeting also paid tribute to Starmer, saying he “led us to a general election victory that no one thought possible, kept us out of the war in Iran and delivered real progress as prime minister at home,” before adding that he “has made the right decision to stand down.”
The journey here
Streeting resigned as Health Secretary last month in a ferocious written attack on Starmer’s leadership, describing a vacuum “where we need vision” and positioning himself as a future candidate. He insisted at the time that he had the backing of 81 Labour MPs – the threshold required to trigger a formal leadership challenge – and said he wanted to give Burnham time to win a parliamentary seat before they had what he called “a battle for ideas.”
He subsequently called publicly on Starmer to set a timetable for departure, keeping pressure on the prime minister while leaving his own intentions deliberately ambiguous. Ed Miliband had been weighing a candidacy specifically to prevent Streeting from winning the leadership, with allies describing the possibility of a “stop Streeting” bid from the left of the party. That calculation now looks academic.
The decision to stand aside reflects a clear-eyed reading of the situation. Burnham’s Makerfield win – 54% of the vote, 9,231 majority, a broad anti-Reform coalition behind him – gave him a mandate and a momentum that no internal Labour candidate could easily match. Streeting’s own personal ratings among Labour members were complicated by his record on NHS privatisation and his acceptance of £372,000 from private health donors, which had become a running political liability.
What Burnham said
Burnham formally announced his candidacy on Monday morning, hours after Starmer’s statement outside No 10. He said he was running to unite the party and “finish the job” of defeating Reform UK at the next general election. He has already secured the support of more than 201 Labour MPs – over half the Parliamentary Labour Party – and Streeting’s endorsement adds significant weight to his standing among the party’s centrist wing.
A coronation or a contest?
Whether any other candidate emerges between now and nominations closing on 9 July remains to be seen. Labour rules require a candidate to secure the nominations of at least 81 MPs before entering the race. With Burnham holding more than 200 and Streeting’s backers now likely to drift his way, the arithmetic for any challenger is extremely difficult.
The rules that made removing Starmer so complicated now work in Burnham’s favour. A coronation is the most likely outcome – and Streeting’s endorsement, coming within minutes of Burnham’s announcement, was clearly timed to make that as close to inevitable as possible.
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