As pressure mounts for Sir Keir’s resignation, Health Secretary Wes Streeting silently waits in the wings for his moment to try and snatch the top job.  Although it looks as if he “bottled it” to launch a formal challenge at Tuesday’s tense Cabinet meeting, as has been reported, he is looking to have a personal showdown today – Wednesday – with the Prime Minister on the day of the King’s Speech.

Thus far this week has been disastrous for the Prime Minister but he may be able to use the King’s Speech as a day of respite to rebuild his position. So far, he has seen four of his ministers resign in one day. Among them is Jess Phillips, now the former safeguarding minister, who said in her resignation letter that “deeds, not words matter”. On top of this, over 80 Labour MPs have now urged Starmer to either draw up a timetable for departure or quit immediately.  

“As minutes painfully tick along in Starmer’s week of reckoning, it seems increasingly likely that the ambitious health secretary might actually swoop in”

There are three main contenders to replace Starmer if he does step down (or is removed by force) – and those are Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham, and Wes Streeting. First and foremost, Burnham would wipe out both of his potential leadership rivals if given the chance, although this relies on him winning a Labour seat. In the meantime, it seems like Streeting is inching towards making a leadership bid – despite tactically ignoring questions from journalists regarding this.  

As minutes painfully tick along in Starmer’s week of reckoning, it seems increasingly likely that the ambitious health secretary might actually swoop in and steal the reins of government. After all, Streeting has been able to pick up a degree of momentum in the past few hours as health minister, Zubir Ahmed, becomes the latest minister to resign. Ahmed, an ally of Streeting, scathingly told Starmer the public had “irretrievably lost confidence in you as prime minister” in his resignation letter.  

We must then ask: what does this mean for the lobbyists? Who are the figures aligned with Streeting that may soon find themselves at the helm of British politics? 

One of the frontrunners is the Labour Growth Group, headed by Chris Curtis, which is allied with both Wes Streeting and Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham. They propose large changes to government policy, including vast tax cuts and help with the cost of living. A report by the group, authored by Mark McVitie, called for national insurance to be cut and capital gains tax exemptions to be reformed. The report also advocated for radical devolution to councils and local authorities, despite the Treasury already consulting on plans to give mayors greater powers over taxation. Furthermore, a key point of the report is to allow Thames Water to fail and fall into administration, thereby allowing new investment reliefs to be offered to venture capitalists and founders. The LGG’s report advocates for the creation of a “Department of the Prime Minister” with the purpose of overseeing core government priorities and forcing decisions through.  

In addition, Streeting maintains a close relationship with Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). He undertook a high-profile visit to Israel in 2022, aimed at fostering relations with Israel’s healthcare sector – which he described as “10 years ahead” of the NHS. Another pro-Israel lobbyist connected to Streeting is Sir Trevor Chinn, who is registered to have donated £5,000 in 2025.  

The health secretary also has strong ties to donors connected to the private healthcare industry. In this vein, an industry body to keep an eye on is MPM Connect, a UK-based investment company in the employment sector, which has interests in private healthcare. It was a significant donor to senior Labour Party MPs including Streeting, Yvette Cooper and Dan Jarvis in 2023, when they all accepted tens of thousands of pounds in donations. MPM Connect is one of a small number of largely unknown companies to become significant political donors. According to the Good Law Project, more than 60% of the money donated to Streeting has come from people and companies linked to private healthcare between 2015 and 2024. This money largely comes from OPD Group Ltd headed by Peter Hearn, which is a recruitment and HR consulting firm that provides services for the private healthcare sector and the NHS. As of 2026, the OPD Group is registered as providing £55,000 for Streeting’s constituency office, scheduled for payment throughout the year.  

Tomorrow will still see the King head to Westminster for the official State Opening of Parliament. The King’s speech is teed up to be a particularly tense event given the chaos in which it is being conducted. It might also serve as the final nail in the coffin for Starmer as after the King’s speech, MPs then debate on its contents for around a week. They vote on it, and governments very seldom lose. The last time the government lost was in January 1924 which forced Conservative PM Stanley Baldwin to resign. We can only wait to see how it goes for Starmer.