With a week to go before voters take to the polls, the race for victory is heating up. But it is not merely the familiar scramble over potholes, bin collections and municipal leisure centres that is exercising Westminster. The other contest – the one to replace Sir Keir Starmer – is acquiring a momentum of its own ahead of what’s set to be an electoral bloodbath on 7 May.
Aides and supporters of both Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have been busy doing the rounds, sounding out opinion and swelling their supporter lists among MPs and party members. Yet while the two Mancunian contenders have been busily offering their wares to anyone within range of a lobby journalist, Wes Streeting has adopted a rather more minimalist approach.
Friends of the Health Secretary tell Steerpike that he has the numbers and is ‘ready to go’ should the starting gun be fired after the electoral carnage. Streeting commands a notably loyal following among Labour MPs and party members, many of whom have been in his orbit since the glamorous days of student politics. As for rival slurs that he may yet be further dragged into the Peter Mandelson drama, Team Wes appears unruffled. Allies insist he has nothing to hide and expect him to be vindicated once the humble address process has run its course.
‘During his years in politics, Wes has built up a network of close allies who are incredibly loyal to him and will back him to the hilt,’ one intimate tells Steerpike. ‘They are ready to go whenever he is.’ Another supporter was rather less emollient about the competition: ‘What rumour could be worse than a tax-dodger?’
A Labour source hit back: ‘While the prime minister deals with the repercussions of an antisemetic terror incident, Wes Streeting appears to want to talk about… Wes Streeting.’
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