Wes Streeting: Ambitious Labour heavyweight taking a swing at Starmer

Wes Streeting: Ambitious Labour heavyweight taking a swing at Starmer3 days agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePaul SeddonPolitical reporterGetty ImagesThe 43-year-old minister has made no secret of his desire to hold the top job one dayAfter days of speculation, Wes Streeting has resigned as health secretary, saying he has lost confidence in the prime minister and has called for a leadership contest to replace him.He has yet to launch a leadership challenge of his own, but he does not pull his punches in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, saying: "Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift."He calls for a leadership contest which is "a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism".And although he does not name Andy Burnham in the letter, he appears to nod towards the Greater Manchester mayor's inclusion in the contest."It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates. I support that approach and I hope that you will facilitate this," he writes.The now former health secretary, 43, has made no secret of his desire to hold the top job one day, although he has always denied he would challenge Sir Keir directly.His supporters believe he has the political skills and fluent style to sell Labour's message more effectively than Sir Keir but as a figure on the right of the party he might struggle to appeal to more left-leaning colleagues.Getty ImagesStreeting poses for selfies with supporters at the 2021 Labour conferenceGrowing up in povertyHe has quietly been clearing the decks for a leadership run for some time - even taking the unusual step of releasing private messages he had exchanged with Lord Mandelson, insisting they had never been close friends.This was designed to kill off claims that he had been a close friend of the disgraced peer, who was sacked as the UK's ambassador to Washington in the wake of the Epstein scandal.He insisted in public that he...