Who Is Wes Streeting, the Cabinet Minister Who Just Resigned From Keir Starmer’s Government?

Wes Streeting, Britain’s health secretary, has been waiting in the wings for months to potentially challenge Keir Starmer for leadership of the governing Labour Party, making little secret of his ambition to one day become prime minister.

On Thursday, Mr. Streeting resigned his post, but he did not announce an immediate leadership challenge. Instead, he used his resignation letter to excoriate Mr. Starmer over the direction of the government, saying, “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum.”

Mr. Streeting, arguably the best communicator in Mr. Starmer’s cabinet, would need the support of 81 Labour members of Parliament to try to oust Mr. Starmer.

It is not yet clear if he has that number of backers, or whether his resignation from the cabinet would spark an immediate attempt at a leadership challenge.

The prime minister is under pressure after Labour suffered severe losses in local elections last week, but he has refused to step down.

In Mr. Streeting’s resignation letter, he said it was clear that Mr. Starmer would not lead Labour into the next general election and called for a “broad” battle of ideas to precede that change. “It needs the best possible field of candidates,” he wrote.

If, as seems likely, a contest happens sometime in the coming weeks or months, Mr. Streeting would likely be seen as the leading and most promising candidate from the right of the Labour Party. However, that faction is not currently popular with most of the party membership.

‘Not Your Typical Politician’

Mr. Streeting, 43, who grew up in a working-class family, was born to teenage parents and lived in public housing in the East End of London. He was the first person in his family to graduate from a university.

In 2023, Mr. Streeting published a memoir describing his upbringing and his climb to power. He wrote about the influence of his two grandfathers, who were both called Bill. His maternal grandfather spent time in prison for armed robbery, he said, and his paternal grandfather was a “traditional working-class Tory,” or member of the Conservative Party, who served in the Royal Navy during World War II.

He worked his way through school, and his political ambition became evident early on. While studying history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, he was the leader of the university’s student union and, later, became head of the national student union.

Mr. Streeting, who is Anglican, came out as gay while in college and has spoken about his initial difficulties in reconciling his religion and his sexuality.

After graduating, he worked in the nonprofit sector, focusing on issues like inequality, before entering politics.

He has described himself as “not your typical politician.”

A Centrist Inspired by a Conservative Grandfather

Mr. Streeting served in local government in the London borough of Redbridge before becoming a member of Parliament in 2015, representing Ilford North in Greater London.

But his career nearly ended in the 2024 general election. Although Labour achieved a landslide victory, Mr. Streeting only won his Ilford North seat by a margin of 528 votes, narrowly ahead of an independent candidate, who campaigned on the issue of Gaza.

Mr. Streeting prides himself on a background that enables him to relate to many voters and on being a straight shooter. “You won’t always agree with me (you should never trust politicians who only ever tell you what you want to hear), but you’ll always know where I stand,” he said on his website.

Mr. Starmer appointed Mr. Streeting as health secretary in 2024. With Mr. Streeting viewed as one of Labour’s most effective communicators, the prime minister has at times relied on him to speak up for his administration.

Mr. Streeting’s own experience with a cancer diagnosis at 38 has informed his work as secretary, he has said.

He can point to some improvements in the performance of the country’s overstretched National Health Service since he became health secretary. Official data released on Thursday showed that hospitals had met Mr. Streeting’s interim target to cut some of its long wait lists for treatment, which rose substantially during the pandemic. However, Mr. Streeting has so far failed to end a damaging series of strikes by junior hospital doctors. They were awarded a significant pay raise when the government came to power, after years of below-inflation increases. But to Mr. Streeting’s annoyancethey have continued to press for significant pay increases.

He said that a major influence in his life had been his paternal grandfather, the Conservative Party member. Mr. Streeting himself is something of a centrist.

While he has support from centrist and right-leaning lawmakers within the Labour Party, the ultimate decision in a leadership contest falls to ordinary fee-paying members of the party who are not in Parliament.

They tilt more to the left, so Mr. Streeting might struggle to win a contest to replace Mr. Starmer should candidates who are more left-wing also present themselves as challengers.

He Distanced Himself From a Fired British Envoy

Mr. Streeting’s critics have pointed to his links to Peter Mandelson, who was fired as Britain’s ambassador to Washington over his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Streeting this year wrote that he was never a close friend of Mr. Mandelson, who was an influential figure on the right of the Labour Party over several decades. “Mandelson and I saw each other for dinner on average once a year, in a group setting. He offered advice,” he wrote.

He also released communications between them.

“I knew him but not well, and worry now that he thrived in our political culture,” Mr. Streeting added.