Wes Streeting has warned that Labour must deliver real change or risk losing power to Reform UK, in his first Commons speech since resigning as health secretary. The former cabinet minister said he quit the government because it was “currently losing” the fight against populist nationalism.
Streeting, who resigned last week and called on Keir Starmer to step down as prime minister, praised Starmer for keeping the UK out of the US-Israel war against Iran but criticised the government’s cautious approach. He argued that the party had allowed Reform and other nationalist parties to hijack patriotism.
“I left the government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing,” Streeting told MPs. “Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences.”
Streeting also reiterated his view that leaving the EU was a damaging mistake, saying that in a world dominated by an unpredictable US, a rising China, and a failed Russia, “we would have been better off leading Europe than leaving the European Union”. He highlighted a breakdown in the inter-generational contract, with young people bearing the biggest burden from Covid, unable to afford homes, and at risk from AI.
“Patriotism isn’t a lecture the old deliver to the young,” he said. “It’s a relationship, and for generations, Britain understood that relationship as a social contract.” He called on the government to fight for young people, warning that the party had no time to waste “treading water”.
