\n<\/p>\n
J<\/span>ust over a year after Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his political survival already looks uncertain. Perennially indecisive, unpopular with the public and unable to pass major legislation without rebellions, the prime minister has reportedly been put \u201con notice\u201d by senior figures within his party. Speculation about a potential successor is mounting.<\/p>\n What would Labour\u2019s dominant faction \u2013 the neo-Blairite right \u2013 look for in a candidate? Their best bet would be an effective operator who doesn\u2019t carry too much political baggage, a decent communicator, free of Starmer\u2019s stumbling reticence, and a committed partisan of their cause: namely the free market and a strong state. They need someone who will go on the offensive for these values, rather than offering the bland apologetics that we have seen from the incumbent.<\/p>\n Few fit the bill better than the health secretary, Wes Streeting, who has made no secret of his ambition to lead the country and appears to have spent years laying the groundwork with media rounds, donor events and backroom conversations. When Starmer\u2019s leadership of the Labour party was on the brink during the Beergate scandal, Peter Mandelson is said to have canvassed the Labour frontbench to anoint Streeting. \u201cIn the longer term,\u201d briefed one party source, \u201cWes is their guy, not Keir.\u201d<\/p>\n Born into a working-class east London family in 1983, Streeting has been fairly consistent in both his political style and outlook since he was in his early 20s. A pugnacious advocate of private enterprise, and an effective behind-the-scenes operator, his deft handling of the press allows him to stride into the limelight at crucial moments, with memorable one-liners that seem crafted to enrage his opponents. As president of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the twilight of the New Labour era, he inveighed against lecturers\u2019 strikes, remarking that \u201cstudents need industrial action by university staff like a hole in the head\u201d. He also broke with dominant student opinion by supporting tuition fees and criticising Palestine solidarity protests.<\/p>\n From the NUS it was only a small step to parliament, where Streeting landed in 2015. The words \u201cfuture leader\u201d were immediately \u201cappended to his name like a Homeric epithet\u201d, according to one insider account. He vigorously opposed the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, repeatedly excoriating him in parliamentary meetings and working with the People\u2019s Vote campaign to chip away at his resistance to a second Brexit referendum. This earned him a place in Starmer\u2019s shadow cabinet once the right had regained control five years later. There, he made no bones about accepting hundreds of thousands of pounds from donors linked to the private healthcare industry. He insisted that the party needed to get tough on \u201claw and order\u201d along with \u201cdefence and national security\u201d; and he signalled a clear shift from the foreign policy of the Corbyn era by visiting Israel and meeting with ministers in its government.<\/p>\n Now that Streeting is at the helm of the NHS, we are beginning to see how his hypothetical prime ministership might play out. Shortly after the last general election, he sketched out his vision for the health service in the pages of the Sun, writing that \u201cmajor surgery\u201d was needed to make it \u201cfit for the future\u201d: moving treatment out of hospitals, so as to focus on local care and prevention. This could not be achieved through public spending, Streeting warned, because \u201cthe money isn\u2019t there\u201d. It could only be done through hard-knuckled \u201creform\u201d.<\/p>\n True to his word, Streeting has helped to normalise the state of perma-austerity at the health department, which will receive only an extra 2.8% annually in real terms over the coming years: less than the long-term historical norm of 3.7%, and far below the average increase of 6.8% under New Labour. This is nowhere near enough to solve the perpetual crisis in the sector, let alone make any real improvements in the quality of care.<\/p>\n Without meaningful investment, the levers that Streeting can pull to realise his goals are limited. There is reorganisation through measures such as the summary abolition of NHS England and mass job cuts. There is techno-optimism, allowing AI companies such as Palantir to run parts of the ailing service. And, most importantly, there is privatisation.<\/p>\n Streeting has been working hard to ensure that \u201cmore treatments can be delivered through the independent sector\u201d, as an official briefing put it. Under his watch, an even greater portion of the NHS \u2013 including, potentially, sensitive patient data \u2013 is being handed over to profit-making companies. His plan to set up 300 \u201cneighbourhood health hubs\u201d is powered by corporate finance, in what is shaping up to be a frame-by-frame replay of the disastrous PFI initiatives of the 2000s. Research shows that the effect of these policies is to worsen health inequality. But this does not seem to concern the minister.<\/p>\n Bullish as ever, Streeting has said he is \u201cup for the fight\u201d that his plan will provoke. And that is what he now has. In recent weeks, resident doctors rejected his notion that \u201creform\u201d alone will magically resolve the service\u2019s deep-rooted problems of under-resourcing and understaffing. They refused to accept a pay deal that would amount to a 21% reduction in their salaries since 2008, and instead made a principled case for wage restoration. Streeting was intransigent. During the resulting five-day strike he launched a series of broadsides against the workers, insisting that they must feel the \u201cpain\u201d of the walkouts and vowing that they would \u201close a war with this government\u201d. Much like his \u201cbullet in the head\u201d rhetoric, the remarks showed that Streeting\u2019s main interest is in positioning himself as a crusader on behalf of the establishment rather than fixing the service he oversees. He is also keenly aware of the populist appeal of his rhetoric at a time when support for the doctors\u2019 struggle is in decline.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The other front on which Streeting has been fighting is the culture war. He has imposed a permanent ban on puberty blockers for trans children \u2013 despite a wealth of dissenting expert opinion including that of the British Medical Association, which disputes the scientific basis of the prohibition \u2013 and he has also barred those under 18 from changing gender markers on their NHS records, potentially making it more difficult for them to access vital services.<\/p>\n The irony, of course, is that while Streeting styles himself as the man to beat Nigel Farage, his politics is one of deference to big business, clampdowns on trans rights and incendiary rhetoric to provoke the left. These features are more typically associated with reactionary populism than with social democracy. Streeting\u2019s ascent reflects the fact that, in today\u2019s Labour party, the former is cannibalising the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just over a year after Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his political survival already looks uncertain. Perennially indecisive, unpopular with the public and unable to pass major legislation without rebellions, the prime minister has reportedly been put \u201con notice\u201d by senior figures within his party. Speculation about a potential successor is mounting. What would Labour\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[9888,134,1899,791,1225,1224],"class_list":{"0":"post-16560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-eagleton","9":"tag-labour","10":"tag-oliver","11":"tag-stand","12":"tag-streeting","13":"tag-wes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}