Every politician likes to deploy a back-story, but few of the current crop have one as vivid as Wes Streeting‘s.
Labour’s Health spokesman, who could be just a year away from taking a Cabinet seat, was raised in a council house by a single mother – the daughter of a reputed armed robber – before studying at Cambridge University, where he came out as gay. And he has been successfully treated for cancer.
The 40-year-old, widely touted as a future leader, must also be the only front-rank politician with parents still in their 50s: he was born when his mother was 17 and his father 18.
Today he is talking to me in a verdant corner of his Ilford North constituency about Labour’s plans for the NHS, including promises to end the 8am phone log-jam for GP appointments and to boost the number of doctors.
He also opens up a new attack front on Rishi Sunak by accusing the Prime Minister of an ‘appalling’ record on women.
The Mail on Sunday’s political editor Glen Owen (left) interviews Labours Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting (right)
Labour’s recent advertisement accusing Mr Sunak of not wanting child sex abusers to be sent to prison has split the party. Many MPs complain that it combines unfairness – its statistics include those for a five-year period when Mr Sunak was not even an MP – with implicit racism.
Mr Streeting, who is prolific on social media, conspicuously failed to retweet the advertisement, but in the interview he backs it emphatically. Explaining that he did not retweet it because he was ‘on holiday’, he says: ‘I stand fully supportive. I think it is absolutely right for Labour to take the gloves off and hold Rishi Sunak to account. How many times do people retweet Labour’s positive ads? How many times did that ad get retweeted?’
When he is asked the trans question du jour about the percentage of women he thinks possess a penis – Sir Keir Starmer recently said that 99.9 per cent do not, while Mr Sunak put the figure at 100 per cent – the Tony Blair disciple performs a pivot worthy of his hero.
‘It’s all very well Rishi Sunak giving himself a pat on the back because he is able to get GCSE biology right,’ he says. ‘But if he knows what a woman is, then why does he let so many of their rapists walk free?
‘If Rishi Sunak knows what a woman is, why do so few women get an endometriosis diagnosis within a reasonable time period? And if Rishi Sunak knows what a woman is, why do so many pregnant women end up on the day of childbirth being directed to a different hospital because the maternity unit that they booked into was overwhelmed? His record for women is appalling.’
He adds: ‘I agree with Keir Starmer – biology is biology. Men have penises, women have vaginas. That’s the biology lesson. But I think what Keir is also right to acknowledge is that there are people in this country who are trans, who experience gender dysphoria, and who deserve dignity and respect, and… [we should] not use them as political punching bags in the way that I think the Conservatives have.’
Given the structural polling advantage Labour traditionally enjoys on the NHS, some in the party have argued that putting someone with Streeting’s dexterity in the portfolio is like putting Lionel Messi in front of an open goal. They believe he should instead be fighting on the battleground of Home Affairs, where the dour Yvette Cooper is failing to electrify her brief.
Wes Streeting (pictured), 40, widely touted as a future leader, must also be the only front-rank politician with parents still in their 50s: he was born when his mother was 17 and his father 18
Meanwhile, two years ago, Mr Streeting experienced the NHS at first hand when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. He is now clear of the disease, and says the experience showed him the service ‘at its best in many respects’.
He tells me: ‘When I received the diagnosis, this Rolls-Royce machine kicked into action. I got amazing treatment from one of the best kidney cancer surgeons in the world – and the best part of it was I never had to worry about the bill at any point. I think that is a wonderful precious thing. But I also saw some of the NHS at its worst.’
Blair failed to stop the NHS becoming a national moneypit, despite the advantage of a 179-seat majority. So why should we trust a Starmer administration to succeed where he failed?
Mr Streeting says: ‘When Labour was in government, we produced the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in the history of the NHS. Things did improve under the last Labour government and I think the truth is that only Labour can be trusted not just to grip the NHS crisis but to make sure we have an NHS fit for the future.
‘I’ve been very up front about the fact that it will take time, but also that the NHS needs to change. It’s not just about money, it’s about the form of the NHS, to make sure that we have a modern health service that can meet the needs of Britain in the next 75 years and that’s not preserving the NHS in aspic.’
He adds: ‘One of the big shifts I want to see is a shift in the focus of healthcare out of the hospitals and into the community. Also that we are supporting people to be fit and active and healthy.’
Mr Streeting is careful not to overtly criticise the Prime Minister for his use of a private GP. ‘What I would say to Rishi Sunak is if you want to use a private GP, that’s up to you but the least you can do as Prime Minister is to make sure people who can’t afford to pay to go private get access to an NHS GP as fast as you get access to a private one.’
Speaking from a converted barn in Hainault Forest, Mr Streeting tries to appear sanguine about the shrinking Labour poll lead, which has more than halved in some surveys to just 11 points.
He says: ‘I think we knew that some of the frankly bonkers polls predicting a Parliament with more than 500 Labour MPs were flights of fantasy. – and I think we’re more grounded in day-to-day reality with conversations we’re having with voters on the doorstep. We know the job isn’t done, that the next Election isn’t in the bag, so we are not complacent’.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting (left) during a visit to Peterborough City Hospital in Cambridgeshire on March 9 this year
He hopes Mr Starmer would give him ‘at least one full term’ in his current portfolio if the party wins a majority. But if the Labour leader blows the next Election, Mr Streeting will be one of the frontrunners to succeed him – and the publication of his memoir, One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up, in June will not harm those ambitions.
‘It is effectively a story about how a working-class kid from a council estate in the East End, with grandparents who spent time in prison, managed to overcome all of the obstacles and hurdles.
‘Insofar as there is any politics, the one thing I do reflect on in the book is how it was that someone from my background was given the opportunities that I had to get to Parliament today – because my driving mission and ambition in politics has always been about how we make sure that working-class kids get the same fair chances.
‘It’s partly because I’ve always had a bit of a chippiness that says, “Well if you can do it, so can I and just because I went to a state school doesn’t mean I can’t achieve as much as a kid who went to private school”. I’ve always had that. I think it has served me well.’