UK health secretary quits cabinet, says PM Starmer lacks vision and direction

TOI correspondent from London: UK health secretary Wes Streeting resigned from the cabinet on Thursday with a scathing letter telling UK PM Keir Starmer he had lost faith in his leadership. "Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift," Streeting said in a blistering resignation letter, paving the way for a leadership challenge.

Streeting, in his letter, called for a leadership election, a "battle of ideas", but stopped short of triggering one himself, though it is thought he does have the backing of 81 Labour MPs needed to do so.

Downing Street said Starmer would fight any leadership challenge mounted against him. The PM's official spokesman said the "position hasn't changed since he set that out on Monday". Streeting is the first full cabinet minister to resign in the wake of disastrous local election results. Four junior ministers quit earlier in the week.

Streeting revealed in the letter that he had told Starmer earlier in the week that he had lost confidence in his leadership and as a result it was "dishonourable and unprincipled" to remain in post. He criticised Starmer for not taking responsibility for his failures and allowing others to "fall on their swords", and for not listening to Labour colleagues.

He said the reason for Labour's dismal performance in those elections was the "unpopularity of this govt", citing as reasons the winter fuel allowance cuts and Starmer's controversial "Island of Strangers" speech, which was compared to Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech.

"For the first time, nationalists are in power in every corner of the UK," he wrote, referring to Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP in Scotland, and "including a dangerous English nationalism represented by Nigel Farage and Reform UK". He said this represents an "existential threat" to the integrity of the UK. Labour MPs Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband and Al Carns, and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham are also seen as challengers to Starmer, though Burnham would need to become an MP first.