Former Health Minister Calls for UK to Rejoin EU

Reuters

Britain’s former health secretary Wes Streeting

Resigned UK's Health Minister Wes Streeting has confirmed he will stand in any Labour leadership race to replace current British Prime Minister Keir Starmer - and said the UK should seek to rejoin the European Union.

Streeting quit as health secretary on Thursday and wrote a stinging resignation letter to the prime minister.

Streeting said on Saturday: "We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I will be standing."

He also said he did not want to force an immediate contest, as it "wasn't in the party's interest [or the] national interest" to have one before Andy Burnham has had the chance to return to parliament.

The former health minister said going ahead with an immediate battle would mean "the new leader, whether it was me or anyone else, would lack the legitimacy and so we would end up extending instability and uncertainty".

"If you think you're good enough to do the top job, if you think you've got the right ideas for the country, you should be prepared to put them forward, test them against other competitors, and win an election," he said.

The Ilford North MP was speaking at a conference of the Progress group of Labour supporters, who view themselves as being on the modernising wing of the party.

At the meeting, Mr Streeting described Britain's 2016 referendum decision to leave the European Union as "a catastrophic mistake" that ⁠had made the country its ⁠weakest since before the Industrial Revolution.

And he said the UK should seek to rejoin the bloc.

"We ‌need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain's future lies with Europe, and one day - one day - ‌back in the European Union," he said.

Streeting repeated his call for Sir Keir to "set out a proper leadership timetable", and to "give his ministers the freedom to nominate whoever they want to see as leader of our party and the prime minister of our country".

The PM has rejected calls to step down after his party suffered ⁠heavy defeats in local and devolved elections last week.



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