Wes Streeting vows not to 'cut and run' to safe seat at next election (2025)

Wes Streeting has vowed not to 'cut and run' to a safe seat at the next general election - despite the likelihood of him facing a huge battle to cling on as an MP.

The Health Secretary won his Ilford North constituency at last July's general election with a majority of just 528 votes.

This was down from a 5,000-vote majority he enjoyed in 2019 and a nearly 10,000-vote majority he secured in 2017.

Mr Streeting's narrow victory last summer followed an intense fight against a pro-Palestinian activist standing as an independent candidate.

Leanne Mohamad stood for election against Labour's stance on the Gaza conflict.

Her strong performance means Mr Streeting now holds Labour's 10th-smallest majority, despite him being a senior Cabinet minister.

But, in an interview with The Spectator, the Health Secretary dismissed a suggestion he could be tempted to move to a safer seat.

He vowed to 'stand on my record' at the next general election, which is scheduled for 2029.

'Definitely not. Ilford North is my home,' Mr Streeting told the magazine.

'And I don't believe in cutting and running, I'm in it to win it. I won against the odds in 2015, I won despite the pressures in 2024.

'And I plan to go into the next election in Ilford North with a track record of turning around the NHS, making a real change for my constituency and changing people's lives.

'I'll be standing on my record at the next election.'

Mr Streeting, a former president of the National Union of Students and ex-local councillor, was first elected an MP at the 2015 general election.

He defeated Tory incumbent Lee Scott in Ilford North by just 589 votes on a night when the Conservatives won an unexpected majority in the House of Commons.

Despite his current slender majority in Ilford North, Mr Streeting is the bookies' favourite to be the next Labour leader after Sir Keir Starmer.

In the interview, Mr Streeting said the now-Prime Minister had been 'consistently underestimated as a leader' since replacing Jeremy Corbyn.

He added: 'I was definitely one of those people when he won the leadership who breathed a huge sigh of relief that the Labour Party had chosen the path of sanity and electability.

'But I didn't think Keir was going to lead us to victory in one term. Poor sod, I thought, he's going to be the Neil Kinnock isn't he?

'Keir always says, "I need to be Kinnock, (John) Smith and (Tony) Blair all in one". And he's done that.'

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