Wes
Streeting faces narrow road to Labour members’ favour
Aletha
Adu
Political
correspondent
Health
secretary’s soft-right credentials put him at a disadvantage even with reduced
membership under Starmer
Tue 12
May 2026 06.00 BST
“Country
first, party second” is a mantra Keir Starmer and his cabinet have repeated
since being in opposition, seeking to draw a dividing line between Labour and
their Conservative predecessors’ inclination for self-destruction.
But party
members do matter in politics – and a key problem for Wes Streeting, one of
those with ambitions to succeed Keir Starmer, is that many of Labour’s do not
like him.
Just
before Labour’s heavy local election losses, a Compass survey of more than
1,000 members found that if they were given a free choice, 42% would pick Andy
Burnham to succeed Starmer – against just 11% for Streeting. And whereas
Burnham had a 44% favourability rating, only 18% felt the same towards the
health secretary.
That
result put Streeting roughly on a par with Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband – but
given those potential candidates and Burnham are firmly to his left, it would
appear to suggest that the majority of the party would prefer not to have a
candidate in Streeting’s place on the ideological spectrum. Both Miliband and
Rayner were viewed favourably by comfortably more members than Streeting was.
Among all
the plotting and jostling for position in the leadership contest, that presents
a serious challenge for Streeting. While he is thought to be the candidate most
ready for a leadership contest, he is on the right of the party, formerly close
to Peter Mandelson and of the Blairite Progress wing.
In recent
months he has been seen as seeking to position himself further to the left,
perhaps in an effort to secure more support from the members who will
ultimately choose the victor from a list nominated by MPs.
Recent
research by Queen Mary University of London found that about 48% of Labour
member describe themselves as “fairly leftwing”. The close result of Labour’s
deputy leadership election and a low turnout suggested that members are still
largely on the so-called soft left.
And they
may remain cautious of any successor trying to appear more leftwing than their
record states, given Keir Starmer’s 2020 leadership pledges, which many viewed
as having ultimately been betrayed after he won the job.
Since
Starmer succeeded Jeremy Corbyn in April 2020, many members have quit: from a
peak of 532,046 members at the end of 2019, Labour lost more than 200,000
members, ending 2024 with 333,235 onside.
“Lots of
grassroots members have left the Labour since the general election, either to
join the Greens (and to a lesser extent Your Party), or just to give up
belonging to any party,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary
University of London.
“Starmer,
inasmuch as he has any strong values, is pretty much like your [current]
average Labour member, and the fact that in some ways he seems to have betrayed
them is partly responsible for their disillusionment with him,” Bale said.
“But
anyone on the right of the Labour party hoping that this means those remaining
are on their side is probably fooling themselves.”
Still,
Bale said, there may be hope for Streeting yet. “Even those who’ve stuck around
are highly likely to be leftwing and very socially liberal. But one thing we
know about members – and Starmer getting himself elected in 2020 rather than
Corbyn’s anointed successor, Rebecca Long-Bailey, is proof of this – is that
party members also want to win elections,” he said.
“So if
Streeting can show them he’s the guy to do that, he still has a chance, even if
he’s not their ideological ideal.”
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