Overview
- Cabinet ministers pressed Keir Starmer to dismiss Health Secretary Wes Streeting for disloyalty, accusing him of breaching collective responsibility and pursuing personal ambition.
- Downing Street said Streeting is doing a great job and remains a key team member, while his spokesman condemned the briefings and pointed to a reported 86,000 fall in waiting lists this week.
- At Tuesday’s political cabinet, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander urged colleagues to form a praetorian guard around the prime minister and to set aside personal ambition, and Streeting did not respond in the meeting.
- Attendees said Starmer closed the session with unusually emotional remarks that some found uplifting, expressing pride in leading a working‑class cabinet and focusing on people harmed by years of low growth.
- The unity effort follows policy reversals and poor polling, including making digital ID cards voluntary and Rachel Reeves saying she is drawing up support for pubs after business‑rates changes, as deputy leader Lucy Powell warned a leadership fight would be madness.