Former health minister Wes Streeting is running to challenge Starmer for the leadership of the Labor Party

The former British Health Minister Wes Streeting confirmed this Saturday what his resignation indicated 24 hours ago: his intention to challenge the British Prime Minister for the leadership of the Labor Party if the president finally gives in to the accumulated pressure and calls elections.

Starmer has already warned that he has no intention of opening a race for the position despite the fact that he has been increasingly cornered in recent weeks after the scandals surrounding the former British ambassador to the United Kingdom Peter Mandelson and the party’s debacle in the week’s municipal elections.

In statements to the Sky News network, Streeting has finished settling the rumors. We need a fair contest with the best candidates, and I am going to run,” said the former minister, who explained that he was waiting for what finally happened late this Friday: another possible competitor, the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has received permission from the Labor party to run for office and return to Parliament to, perhaps, end up running for office.

Thus, Streeting, 43, has reiterated his request to Starmer to “establish an appropriate leadership calendar” and “give his ministers the freedom to appoint whoever they want as leader of the party and prime minister of the country.”

Streeting, in his speech at the conference of the Progress group, affiliated with the Labor Party, has reiterated one of his basic pillars that he will defend in a possible campaign: the country’s reintegration into the European Union.

“We need a new special relationship with the EU, because the future of this country is in Europe, and one day it will once again be part of the European Union,” he indicated before denouncing Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake.”

“In 2026, the British people increasingly realize that, in a dangerous world, we must join forces, both to rebuild our economy and trade and to improve our defense against the common threats arising from Russian aggression and the rollback arising from the ‘America First’ policy,” he said.