Streeting to fire starting gun in Starmer leadership battle – The Latest

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Today in Focus 10 min 4 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 4 months ago
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What leadership challenge is Wes Streeting planning against Keir Starmer?

Archie Bland 0:00
There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Does he have sufficient support to raise a challenge to Keir Starmer? You even hear people say he might not be naturally sympathetic to West Street. At least he appears to have a clarity of agenda and a willingness to fight for it.
Lucy Hough 0:27
House Secretary Wes Streeting is expected to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer as soon as tomorrow, with news of the plan dropping during the King's speech, derailing what was supposed to be another chance for the Prime Minister to reset the political agenda.

What does the 16-minute meeting between Streeting and Starmer signify?

Lucy Hough 0:42
From The Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoff. Well, joining me is the head of national news, Archie Bland. Archie, another quiet day in a very quiet news week. In the last few minutes, we're recording at lunchtime. We're hearing that West Streeting is reportedly planning to resign tomorrow and launch a leadership campaign following a

Does Wes Streeting have enough support to challenge Starmer?

Lucy Hough 1:05
16 minute meeting with Keir Starmer this morning interested in the 16 minute length because it's not nothing these episodes are 10 minutes and we get through quite a lot so what does 16 minutes mean to you?
Archie Bland 1:17
I won't have resigned from the latest by the end of this episode but Yeah, it's interesting partly because it suggests that there wasn't a lot of constructive discussion there. That's not long enough to have a kind of a very deep and serious conversation about next steps for the government. It feels like it's about the two of them presenting a public posture of disagreement.

What impact did the King's speech have on the political agenda?

Archie Bland 1:36
And we have since heard from allies of Streeting that he intends to resign as soon as tomorrow, which is a phrase which leaves some wiggle room for it not being tomorrow. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions there. about that one of them is does he have sufficient support to raise a challenge to keir starmer he would need 81 mps and it's not clear that he has that yeah another is is it being outsourced to his allies because he doesn't really intend to do it or doesn't quite know whether he's definitely going to do it yet this story has taken a lot of twists and turns so far and there are probably more to come so watch the space and even by the time you hear this there may have been more that's happened yeah
Lucy Hough 2:12
But interesting, I mean, listening to the news last night, there was a sense amongst some MPs that Starmer had sort of weathered the storm. This letter of 100 MPs saying it's now's not the time.

How are Streeting's allies reacting to his leadership bid?

Lucy Hough 2:23
Let's let's steady the ship and let's look at a leadership contest in future. Streeting has obviously disrupted that, but also two of his major allies resigned from their positions yesterday. Do you think for him it's a question of it's really now or never, given that we know that Andy Burnham was also in town and is looking for a seat?
Archie Bland 2:42
Yeah, you know, I don't think it's ideal for Streeting to go now because he's worried that it looks opportunistic. He doesn't want to be the first one out of the blocks on this, but he may feel that he doesn't have an opportunity if he's not the first one out of the blocks because of the way things are going.

What are the implications of the recent resignations among Streeting's allies?

Archie Bland 2:57
He may feel, as you say, that it's now or never. As far as his allies go... Another of them, Peter Kyle, who said that he couldn't possibly be planning a leadership bid because they went to the Devil Wears Prada 2 together a few days ago. Very important facts. Absolutely.

How does the King's speech affect Labour's legislative agenda?

Archie Bland 3:09
He came out in support of Keir Starmer. So it's quite hard to have comprehensive readings of these things from the tea leaves that are swilling around at the moment. But, you know, it does look more and more like this is really going to happen now. And I think Streeting will probably feel that he is far from in an ideal position to do it, but he has to get on with it.
Lucy Hough 3:27
Meanwhile, amidst all of this context, there's this sort of near farcical King's speech involving all the pomp and paddetry, the black rod knocking on the door.

What are the potential consequences of the investigation into Nigel Farage?

Lucy Hough 3:39
Someone made a very good joke, which is not now Andy, which I think will go down in the annals of black rod jokes. But obviously this is meant to be a very important symbolic moment of the government presenting its legislative agenda and some fairly major stuff, getting rid of NHS England, Shabana Mahmood's immigration bill, the overhaul of the provision of special educational needs, some big policy stuff that I think Labour really wanted to refocus on.

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