Starmer backs Streeting and refutes ‘completely unacceptable’ No 10 leaks over ‘coup attempt’: Latest

During his speech at the NHS Providers conference in Manchester Mr Streeting suggested he was not “on manoeuvres”.

Quizzed further after his speech the health secretary was asked will you be fighting alongside the prime minister, following stories of an alleged leadership coup.

Mr Streeting said: “The bizarre thing about some juvenile briefing overnight its some people in No.10 said the prime minister is fighting for his job, I don’t think that is true…I think what he is trying to do is fighting to turn this country around.”

Quizzed about a 2024 interview when he expressed his desire to be PM one day.

He said: I’ve got a hard job already, so I’m quite enjoying doing this, and I’m thank you very much.”

Adding “I’m not going to say anything today that adds to the silly season that is going down.”

Wes Streeting has dismissed questions that Keir Starmer is fighting for his job in No 10.

“The bizarre thing about some juvenile briefing overnight is that it’s some people in No 10 that have said the prime minister is fighting for his job.

“I don’t think that’s a helpful or constructive thing to say, I also don’t think it’s true.

“What I think he is doing is fighting to turn the country around from the enormous mess we’ve inherited on so many fronts.”

Sir Keir Starmer “has lost control of his Government, he’s lost the confidence of his party, and lost the trust of the British people”, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch said: “I wouldn’t have made the stupid mistake in the first place of putting up the jobs tax and killing jobs.

“Since they came in, it’s been disaster after disaster. The Deputy Prime Minister, the new Deputy Prime Minister, is clueless about how many illegal migrant sex offenders he’s let loose. The Culture Secretary breaking the rules to give her donor a top job. Taxes set to rise even further, unemployment at levels not seen since lockdown.

“And in the middle of it, a weak Prime Minister at war with his own Cabinet.

“It’s not just him, it is all of them. There is no replacement, it is all of them. Two weeks before the Budget, isn’t it the case that this Prime Minister has lost control of his Government, he’s lost the confidence of his party, and lost the trust of the British people?”

The Prime Minister replied: “The stupid mistakes were made over 14 long years. They broke the economy and now they think they can lecture us, and now they’ve got this unserious idea that they can find £47 billion of cuts without saying where they’re going to come from.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has addressed leadership speculation as he attends the NHS conference in Manchester.

He said he wanted to start by “addressing this leadership speculation upfront”.

“I know there is concern about how long the man in the top job has left,” he said. “Let me reassure everyone I am doing everything I can to persuade Jim Mackey to stay around as long as possible.”

He referred to Sir Jim Mackey the Chief Executive Officer of NHS England and not Sir Keir Starmer, who he is rumoured to be challenging the premiership of.

We’ll bring you the updates as Wes Streeting speaks on NHS reform at a conference in Manchester.

Stay tuned for the top lines.

Number 10 indicated on Wednesday afternoon that the prime minister does still have confidence in his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.

Asked about the matter during PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer declined to explicitly say he had confidence in his senior aide, saying that his team, including Mr McSweeney, are “absolutely focussed on delivering for the country”.

The prime minister’s press secretary said afterwards that the PM does have confidence in his aide and pointed to his words in the chamber.

It looks as if someone in Downing Street has misjudged their pre-emptive warning to plotters who would seek to undermine Keir Starmer and his leadership. It appears that top brass within Labour feared that the Budget, in two weeks, would be so unpopular that it would trigger a challenge to the PM.

Selected journalists have been told that Starmer would refuse to go quietly, and instead stand and fight any challenge – and that the markets would react badly to the instability.

But the briefing war has got out of hand. Some of it was aimed squarely at Wes Streeting, the ambitious and inescapably interesting health secretary.

John Rentoul writes:

Downing Street will not be drawn into commenting on suggestions there is a toxic culture at the heart of Government.

Asked if the Prime Minister was concerned about sexism within No 10, the Prime Minister’s press secretary insisted there were “fantastic women at the very top of Government”.

Pressed if this meant Health Secretary Wes Streeting was wrong to talk about the need for a change of “culture” in No 10, she replied: “No. I am just setting out that we have fantastic women. I am not commenting directly on his comments.”

Asked if the PM was concerned about discontent among Labour backbenchers with his record, the press secretary told reporters: “You have got the Prime Minister’s words about always wanting to go further and faster on delivering for the British people. That is his sole focus. That is his Government’s sole focus. That is what Labour MPs are focused on as well.”

Sir Keir “engages regularly” with the Parliamentary Labour Party, she added, and he will continue to do so in the weeks ahead of the Budget and beyond.