Starmer under fire over No 10 briefings against Streeting
Keir Starmer attempted to distance himself from anonymous attacks made by senior Downing Street officials against health secretary Wes Streeting on Tuesday night, though he defended his “united team” working at Number 10.
In an awkward Prime Minister’s Questions for Starmer, the Prime Minister said briefings against Cabinet ministers were “unacceptable”.
He said he backed Streeting, who was in Manchester for ministerial work, for doing a “great job” in reforming the NHS.
“Any attack on any member of my cabinet is completely unacceptable,” Starmer said.
“[Streeting]’s doing a great job, as is the whole of my Cabinet.”
Asked by opposition leader Kemi Badenoch on whether he had confidence in his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, Starmer said: “Morgan McSweeney, my team and I are absolutely focused on delivering for this country”
“Let me be clear, of course, I’ve never authorised attacks on Cabinet members. I appointed them to their post because they’re the best people to carry out their jobs.”
“Waiting lists are down under this Government. The number of GPs is up, because we scrapped NHS England, we’re investing on the front line, that’s what the health secretary is doing today, getting on with his job, and he’s doing a very good job too.”
“We are a united team,” he added before roars of laughter from opposition MPs.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the government had “descended into civil war” and said there was a “toxic culture” at Number 10.
Starmer grilled on briefings
Prime Minister’s Questions came hours after Streeting was forced to deny he was mounting a leadership campaign against Starmer.
On Tuesday night, several reports emerged stating Starmer would fight back against any challenge to his premiership after a difficult Autumn Budget.
In a co-ordinated briefing campaign to journalists across Westminster, Downing Street officials accused Streeting – and other Cabinet ministers – of gathering support among the backbenches to ready himself for a leadership campaign.
In several broadcast interviews, Streeting hit back at Number 10 staffers as he called for the Prime Minister to sack officials for taking a swing at him.
“It’s a totally self-defeating briefing, not least because it’s not true and I don’t understand how anyone thinks it’s helpful to the Prime Minister either,” Streeting told Sky News.
“I do think that trying to kneecap one of your own team when they are out, not just making the case for the Government, but actually delivering the change that we promised, I think that is also self-defeating and self-destructive behaviour.”
Hiding behind the bond markets?
It has been suggested that Number 10 strategists fear advisers and MPs misunderstand the importance of political stability to financial markets and the public finances.
Starmer’s team told reporters that investors would lose confidence in the Labour government if a leadership contest took place as investors trusted Reeves and Starmer.
Bloomberg separately reported that the economist and former Treasury minister Kitty Ussher gave a presentation to government officials on gilt markets a fortnight ago.
She reportedly argued that gilt yields, which translate into borrowing costs for the government, remained high because of the influence of backbenchers on policies including welfare reforms.
Bond markets shrugged at Westminster gossip in the early hours of trading on Wednesday as gilt yields only inched up by around three to four basis points.
Git yields dropped the day before due to dovish data showing a rise in unemployment, raising the possibility of an interest rate cut later this year.