Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary and informally challenged Prime Minister Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party today (14/05), following the party’s poor performance in the local elections last Thursday (07/05).

Streeting had served as Health Secretary since 2024. In his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, he said: “having lost confidence in your leadership, I have concluded that it would be dishonourable and unprincipled for me to [remain in post].

“Last week’s election results were unprecedented – both in terms of the scale of the defeat and the consequences of that failure.” He continued: “Progressives […] are increasingly losing faith that the Labour Party is capable of rising to our historic responsibility of defeating racism and offering hope that Britain’s best days lie ahead through social democracy.”

Streeting also said: “where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”

He added: “It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election and that Labour MPs and Labour Unions want the debate about what comes next to be a battle of ideas, not of personalities or factionalism.”

Streeting studied history at Selwyn College, graduating in 2004. In his time at Cambridge, he served as JCR President, and was later elected president of the Cambridge Students’ Union (SU, known at the time as CUSU) for the 2004-2005 academic year. The election was described as the “closest electoral battle of the last thirty years,” being decided by 22 votes. Streeting was later elected president of the National Union of Students (NUS).

In a Varsity article announcing the results of the 2004 SU election, Streeting described his campaign style as “guerilla-warfare,” including “plastering toilets in colleges with posters,” and attending nightclubs with his supporters to canvas by dressing “with ‘Wes for Pres’ stickers across their chests and bottoms”.

In 2004, as SU President, Streeting led a campaign alongside the president of ArcSoc (Architecture Society) to stop the closure of the Architecture Department. The campaign, which involved marching from the department to Senate House, was eventually successful, with the University conceding to student demands several months later.

In 2016, Streeting told Varsity that during his time as SU President, he “always had a really good relationship with Varsity and TCS”.

In an interview with Varsity in 2024, Streeting said that he would “possibly” have taken part in pro-Palestine demonstrations, if he were a student now. He added: “student protests are part and parcel of student life […] as long as students are making their point respectfully and peacefully and mindfully of how the war [between Israel and Hamas] will impact on different parts of the student body”.

Streeting has frequently referenced his working-class upbringing, and described his time at Selwyn as helping him “to shake off my own conscious and unconscious bias against people from more affluent backgrounds”. Asked about changes to Cambridge’s admissions policies, including the scrapping of state school admissions targets, he argued that Cambridge should aim to be “academically elite without being socially elitist”.

In 2025, the Labour government announced that it would raise tuition fees from £9,250 to £9,535 from the 2026-2027 academic year, along with an increase in maintenance loans, to address the financial challenges facing many universities.

As president of the NUS, Streeting argued in favour of measures such as a graduate tax. Streeting told Varsity in 2024 that the Labour party was “actively looking at higher education funding” and how it impacts students, “particularly those from poorer backgrounds”.

In 2007, Varsity reported that Streeting, then the NUS Vice-President for education, had been accused of “betraying” the SU, after changing his position on the issue of whether Cambridge students should be included in the National Student Survey (NSS). As SU President, he had initiated the boycott by Cambridge students of the NSS, on the basis that it was “not only harmful to student feedback mechanisms, but not useful either”. Streeting told Varsity that his position had changed because the survey’s “methodology” had improved by becoming “less intrusive,” arguing that “NSS results are having a direct impact on the enhancement of student experience”.

Other potential contenders for the Labour leadership include Angela Rayner, who announced today that she had been cleared of wrongdoing following an HMRC investigation into her tax affairs. Additionally, the Labour MP for Makerfield announced earlier today that he was standing down to make way for Andy Burnham – who studied English at Fitzwilliam College – to re-enter Parliament in order to stand in a potential leadership contest.

The Cambridge University Labour Club (CULC) told Varsity: “This moment is one in which the Labour party and government has the opportunity to facilitate a vital conversation about policies, leadership, and the vision we want to set out and deliver for Britain. Amid last week’s disappointing local election results and the dangerous surge in support for Reform, this has never been more vital.

“CULC remains committed to a progressive vision of a fairer, more just Britain that delivers for working people across the nation. We have faith that regardless of whoever is Prime Minister, Labour is the party that can deliver this vision.”