Tag Archives: wes streeting

Labour Tries To Shut Down Talk Of A Coalition Government With The Liberal Democrats

Posted on by
Reply

Labour’s Wes Streeting has insisted they are “not entertaining” the prospect of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

The shadow health secretary said he did not think it is the “scenario” the country will be in at the next general election.

However, he did not rule out a coalition with the Lib Dems when repeatedly pressed on the possibility in an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge.

In separate interview Lib Dem leader Ed Davey explicitly ruled out working with the Tories but did not rule out a coalition with Labour.

Last week’s council results point to a hung parliament at the next general election. They suggest Labour would be the largest party, but short of a majority.

Former prime minister David Cameron and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 12, 2010.
Former prime minister David Cameron and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 12, 2010.

AFP via Getty Images

It could be similar to the situation the Tories found themselves in in 2010 when they formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems.

Asked whether Labour would be prepared to go into coalition with the Lib Dems, Streeting said: “We’re not even entertaining that prospect…

“I just don’t think that is the scenario that we are going to be in after the next general election.”

Asked a third time about local election results pointing towards a hung parliament, he said: “This is a process, not an event. We’re not at the final destination yet in terms of the general election.”

Put to him that he was not ruling it out, he gave examples of why “we shouldn’t read the local elections right across”.

He said: “Take Hull, where I saw through gritted teeth the Liberal Democrats did rather well.

“I heard the Lib Dem leader of Hull council the other night saying ‘well, look, locally, people have voted Lib Dem but at the general election people in this city vote Labour’.”

He added: “We’re not complacent about this and there’s so much more still to come.”

When leader Lib Dem leader Davey was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show about a coalition with Labour, he said: “That is a hypothetical question because we don’t know what’s going to happen after the next election.”

Put to him that he was ruling out working with the Tories but not Labour, said: “The focus is on getting rid of Conservative MPs. I make no apology for that.”

His deputy leader Daisy Cooper similarly did not rule out a coalition with Labour when challenged.

She told Sky they had “ruled out” working with the Conservatives because of the “damage they are doing to the country”.

But pressed on a coalition with Labour, she replied: “Everything we do between now and the general election will be about focusing on getting Liberal Democrat MPs elected.”

Thursday’s results were disastrous for the Tories who lost some 1,050 seats and control of nearly 50 councils.

It means Labour is now the largest party of local government – overtaking the Conservatives for the first time since 2002.

Share Button

Tory Chairman Greg Hands Mocked After Claiming Public Services Are ‘In Great Shape’

Posted on by
Reply

Tory Party chairman Greg Hands has been savaged after claiming Britain’s public services are “in great shape”.

He made the extraordinary comments despite NHS waiting lists being at a record high and teachers, nurses, doctors and civil servants planning another wave of public sector strikes.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: “What planet is he on?”

Hands made his astonishing claim while being interviewed on LBC.

He said: “I think public services are getting better. “We’re seeing far more nurses, far more doctors – 38,000 more doctors in the NHS since the Conservatives took over, there’ll be 50,000 nurses by the end of next year.

“Teaching standards are getting better, I think public services are improving.”

Hands added: “We’re dealing with the strikes at the moment but overall our public services are in great shape.”

Presenter Andrew Castle responded: “I find it absolutely extraordinary that you’ve said that.
“I don’t feel that myself and I don’t think my listeners would either.

Responding to the comments, shadow health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “He’s living on a different planet, isn’t he?

“That’s not what people who use public services are experiencing.

“We’ve got objectively the worst crisis in the history of the NHS, school budgets are on their knees.”

In a separate interview on Sky News, Hands was asked why anyone would consider voting Conservative in next month’s local elections, given the state of the country.

Share Button

Wes Streeting Says He Is ‘Sick And Tired’ Of Being Asked If He Wants To Be Labour Leader

Posted on by
Reply

Labour’s Wes Streeting has said he is “sick and tired” of being asked whether he wants to succeed Keir Starmer as the party’s next leader.

The shadow health secretary, a rising star within Labour, has long been tipped as a potential future leader.

But dismissing the speculation, Streeting said he would be “too old” to take on the job by the time Starmer had finished being prime minister if Labour wins the next election.

Speaking to reporters at a lunch in Westminster, Streeting said: “I really thought that when we got to a point where we were 30 points ahead in the polls these questions would just stop.

“I’m sick and tired of them. I’ll be far too old by the time Keir is finishing being prime minister. They’ll be looking to new fresh faces and a new generation.

“I already have a leadership role with the Labour Party — I have a big job to do, a serious job to do.

“And if I look back on my career in politics, as the secretary of state of health and social care, who gripped the worst crisis in the history of the NHS, and put it on a footing that makes it fit for the future so people look back on that in the way people that back on Bevan, I will have more than achieved my ambitions in politics and be very happy with the career I’ve had.”

Streeting was speaking as Labour continues to enjoy a near 30-point lead in the polls following the chaos sparked by the mini budget and Liz Truss’s downfall as prime minister.

However, the election of Rishi Sunak as party leader has given the Conservatives a small bounce in the polls, with support for the Tories up for points to 23%, while Labour has dropped five points to 51%.

There are some fears within Labour that Sunak’s serious approach to fixing the economy could persuade voters to stick with the party.

But the shadow health secretary said Sunak was “one of many Conservative chancellors that have saddled our country with more than a decade of failed economic policies”.

He painted a stark contrast between the Tories and Labour, saying that while his party had “changed substantially at every level”, the Tories had made some “very questionable choices in leadership elections”.

“In the Labour Party, the cranks have been kicked out or have left. In the Conservative Party, the cranks are sat around the Cabinet table,” he said.

And in a swipe at Sunak’s controversial decision to reappoint Suella Braverman as home secretary just days after she was sacked by Truss for a serious security breach, Streeting said: “He [Starmer] seeks unity, but unlike Rishi Sunak he prizes unity with and for the interests of the country, above appeasing factions within his own party.”

Streeting welcomed the fact that Sunak is the UK’s first Asian prime minister, calling it a “cause for celebration”, but said Labour was “ready to take him on”.

Sunak cannot tackle the cost of living crisis “because he has fuelled the cost of living crisis,” Streeting went on.

“I don’t care that Rishi Sunak was privately educated, or that he’s hugely wealthy.

“I do care that he’s dangerously out of touch, making decisions about people whose lives he has never lived and whose lives he will never understand — decisions that are making them poorer, not richer.

“Ideological dogma may have crashed the economy with the mini budget, but more than a decade of failed Conservative economic policies have left working people paying the price.”

Share Button