BREAKING: Wes Streeting resigns and calls for leadership contest - Watch ITV Lunchtime News

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:01:00]Challenge accepted. In the last half an hour, West Streeting has resigned. The health secretary quits saying MPs want a debate and it's clear the prime minister will not lead Labor into the next election.

[00:01:17]Also this lunchtime, the former deputy prime minister, Angela Raina, says she's been cleared over her tax affairs.

[00:01:26]They've said that there wasn't any wrongdoing and that I didn't try to avoid paying tax or I wasn't careless in the way in which I conducted myself.

[00:01:37]>> Now, the leadership race is surely on.

[00:01:39]We'll have the latest also this lunchtime.

[00:01:44]The chancellor says now is not the time to risk instability as new figures show the economy grew unexpectedly in March.

[00:01:55]And teaching Italian, Kate visits a nursery school to learn how children are taught there.

[00:02:14]This is the ITV lunchtime news with Nina Hussein in Downing Street.

[00:02:22]Good afternoon from Downing Street. In the last few minutes, the health secretary was streeting has resigned, paving the way for a widely anticipated challenge to the leadership of the Prime Minister Sakir Stalmer. In a letter to him, Streing said he had lost confidence in StarMA's leadership, that it was clear that he would not lead Labor into the next election and that it would be dishonorable and unprincipled to remain in his post. It follows a significant interview by the former deputy prime minister Angela Raina with ITV News in which she doesn't rule out running for the leadership herself.

[00:03:03]We'll hear from her in a moment, but first to our political correspondent Sheihab Khan who is with me. Uh we were waiting for drama and so it begins. Take us through what's happened in in the last few minutes.

[00:03:14]>> Yeah, we've had the resignation of the health secretary uh where's streeting.

[00:03:18]He has released a letter. It won't come as a huge surprise. He was in that building just yesterday where he had that one-on-one meeting with the prime minister in which we were told he made it clear that he did not believe that the prime minister should continue on.

[00:03:31]He has posted a letter. This is what he's had to say. He said, "Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift." This was underscored by your speech on Monday.

[00:03:41]Leaders take responsibility, but too often that has meant other people falling on their swords. You also need to listen to your colleagues, including backbenches, and the heavy-handed approach to dissenting voices diminishes our politics. He goes on to say, "It is now clear that you will not lead the Labour Party into the next general election." What he doesn't do in that letter is make it clear that he will be launching his own leadership bid. So there are two options here. The first is that he hasn't got the 81 MPs that he needs to support him. That is one possible option. The second possible option is that actually he does and he's going to do that later or over the next few days or so. This could be an attempt to pile pressure on the prime minister to get him to outline his departure date if that's the direction that he wants to go in. Interestingly, I did have an MP text me moments after West Streeting's resignation dropped to ask, "Are there going to be more other members of the cabinet now going to step away?" All eyes will be on Shabbana Mimmude, the home secretary. She reportedly spoke to the prime minister earlier in the week telling him that he should set out a departure date. It'll be interesting to see if others follow. It will then also now kick others into gear. If West Streeting has resigned and if he is about to launch a leadership race, what will the other potential leadership candidates do? Of course, we're talking to Angela Raina. What will she do now?

[00:04:54]Given that this the race might be about to start, what will Andy Burnham, who obviously doesn't have a seat at the moment, what will his team do? His allies have been saying that there are seats available to him. We haven't heard from any MP who has suggested they are willing to resign to let him run. That is another person that's going to have to make a decision about what they do next. Then you've also got outside uh outside candidates. Al Karns is one Kahn is one that's been been named quite a few times by MPs as a potential dark horse. He's an ex-military man. the 2024 MP. Could he now launch a leadership race? The the indication here is that things are about to hot up very very quickly. The prime minister will now need to decide whether he wants to take on anyone that wants to challenge him, whether he's going to stay in place or if he's going to set out a departure date and if he's going to resign.

[00:05:41]>> Okay. Uh we all uh standing here waiting to see what Wes and the others will indeed do next. She thank you very much.

[00:05:49]Meanwhile, a major intervention this morning from the former deputy prime minister, Angela Raina, who was forced to quit over her tax affairs. She says an investigation from the HMRC has cleared her and potentially cleared a path for her to join a leadership race.

[00:06:06]I'm joined now by our UK editor, Paul Brand. Paul, you spoke to Angela Raina.

[00:06:11]Uh let's first of all um discuss what she told you about that stamp duty, about her tax affairs.

[00:06:18]>> Yeah. Well, as you've been hearing from, she all the candidates are trying to get ahead of one another, it seems today, and Anderena is no exception. HMRC has cleared her of any deliberate wrongdoing and potentially therefore cleared her path to number 10, too. She's had this investigation hanging over her head for months now. People said that meant that she wasn't a viable candidate to lead the Labour Party because how could she when she had that scandal swirling around her? But now, HMRC have said she didn't try to avoid tax. It was a complicated situation with her son and therefore no wrongdoing has been found.

[00:06:52]She has, in her words, been exonerated, though she has had to pay or decided to pay back £40,000 of stamp duty that she should have paid in the first place. And this is what she said when I asked her to explain the situation.

[00:07:05]>> Can you just tell me what the decision was from HMRC as you understand it?

[00:07:09]Well, I welcome HMRC's conclusion to and they've said that there wasn't any wrongdoing and that I didn't try to avoid paying tax or I wasn't careless in the way in which I conducted myself at the time when I was in government and this came to my attention that there could have been tax owed. I was really shocked about that because I'd taken advice and I've never wanted to avoid paying my tax.

[00:07:33]>> Okay, what about the bigger picture? It looks like the race uh might now be on to potentially replace Sakir Stalmer.

[00:07:41]What did she tell you about that whether she is considering standing? We we wait for Wes Streeting. We also wait to hear from Angela Raina.

[00:07:49]>> Yeah, we assume there will be a candidate that runs from the left of the party if indeed there is a contest. Uh that candidate could now be Angela Raina. There was talk of maybe her standing aside for somebody else. We'll get into that in a moment when it comes to Angie Vernon, for example. But it seems to me that she does now believe she has a shot at running for number 10.

[00:08:07]And often with these interviews, it's about reading between the lines and what they don't say. I asked her repeatedly, does she want to run for leader? And you can judge for yourself whether or not she does.

[00:08:17]>> Would you like to lead that team? Would you want to be prime minister?

[00:08:21]>> I want to deliver as part of the team.

[00:08:23]And I've always said that it is a team effort. It's not one person. It's not a presidential situation. We all have to pull together to deliver that.

[00:08:31]>> But would you want to lead the team because the team does have to have a leader.

[00:08:34]>> Would you want to be leader?

[00:08:35]>> We we do have to have a leader and we've got a leader and I'm not going to go into hypotheticals, but >> you're not ruling out potentially taking over.

[00:08:42]>> But I have said that we have to do better.

[00:08:46]>> Well, the full exchange there went on for about 10 minutes as I tried to get her to answer whether or not she wants to be leader. I think the fact that she kept saying I'm not getting into hypotheticals. And she also used the phrase at the moment quite a lot as well. Makes me think she is wondering about what her steps might be in the coming days. Though it's hard for her to predict exactly what everyone else is going to do. You know, she was waiting for Wes Streeting as we say. The big question though had been whether she would stand aside for Andy Burn and there'd be quite a lot of briefing that maybe they'd done a deal together that maybe he'd become prime minister, she could be in his top team or vice versa.

[00:09:16]But she denied that actually, which again I think is an interesting indication of potentially her own ambitions. She was absolutely categorical that there is no pack between them.

[00:09:26]>> People are wondering, has a deal been done between you and Andy Bernham?

[00:09:29]>> No, I just think that we should all be working together. I think that's the important thing. I'm not doing deals or anything like that. I want us to get on with the job of actually delivering for the people of this country.

[00:09:42]>> So, look, we don't have a leadership contest yet. Uh, but the big question, as I say, will be who's going to run from the left of the party. We assume West Streeting will run from the right.

[00:09:50]Could it be Angela Raina? Well, I get the impression she would very much like to >> some change this lunchtime, but still many many a question. Paul Brand, thank you very much. And if you want to watch Paul's full interview with the former housing secretary, Angela Raina, do so by uh scanning the QR code that should be coming up on your screen right now.

[00:10:13]Well, this is the government that promised growth and today there was some positive news on that front. At least the gross domestic product figures showed a 0.6% increase in the economy for the first three months of the year. Our economics editor Joel Hills joins me now from the Bank of England. Joel, with the Middle East unrest still and huge political uncertainty here, what do these latest figures from March tell us?

[00:10:43]Well, they tell us that when the dust settles on the chaos in Westminster that whoever is left standing as prime minister has an enormous uh diff enormously difficult challenge on their hands. The economy did grow very strongly actually in the first three months of this year. But that was the case in 2022, in 2023, in 2024, in 2025.

[00:11:06]And in each case, what happens next was the wind dropped. we lost momentum and ended up back in the doldrrons. So whatever happens next is unlikely to continue like this. Now the key thing is the straight of horm that's the main challenge since it's been closed. Uh it's unleashed an energy shock which has pushed up oil and gas prices. Prices more generally are rising. The full impact of the disruption is yet to be felt. But another cost of living squeeze is coming.

[00:11:36]We expect that living standards are £550 worse for a typical household than they otherwise would have been. That will mean that the public finances are, we think, about 16 billion worse than they otherwise would have been. So there's no easy loose change hanging around to support families through this.

[00:11:55]>> You can't blame the government for the war or its impact on petrol and diesel prices, energy bills, or indeed the increase in food prices that's coming.

[00:12:04]You can ask what they plan to do about it and the fact is the UK's been stuck in a low growth rut for 18 years. Karma was elected on a promise to get us out of it. So far he struggled to. If he is deposed then an unpopular prime minister falls. But has his successor got any better ideas? We don't know what we're treating plans to do with tax, with spending, with borrowing, with debt, with our relationship with the European Union, with investment. We just don't know.

[00:12:33]Joel Hills, thank you very much.

[00:12:38]>> Prince Harry has called for the UK to stand against anti-semitism and anti-Muslim hate as he describes his concerns over a divided Britain. Writing in the New Statesman, the Duke of Sussex said the hostility towards an entire people or faith was never justified, adding that recent lethal violence was prejudice, not protest.

[00:13:06]The king has visited Golders Green following an anti-Semitic knife attack on two men last month. Charles met with representatives of the Jewish community and local charities and spoke to residents who live on the high street where the attack took place.

[00:13:28]Next, it's the 70th anniversary of Euro Vision this year, but once more the famous music competition and celebration is clouded by controversy and conflict.

[00:13:40]Several countries, including Spain, are boycotting due to Israel's participation. Tonight is the second semi-final before the main event on Saturday night. Our arts editor, Nina Nana, has the latest from the Austrian capital, Vienna. Well, tonight sees the second semi-final of this, the largest live cultural event in the world. The competition will be taking place in the Veneatala behind me. The UK is taking part with Bulgaria and Cyprus, but the focus, the crisis has been all about the countries who are boycotting this year's event. The Netherlands, Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland, and Spain have all decided to sit this competition out this year because of the inclusion of Israel.

[00:14:24]And it is fair to say for the organizers that in this the 70th anniversary of the Eurovvision Song Contest, this buildup, this party is not quite what they've been anticipating. Look, we're a family and we got five members of the family missing this year and we love them and we miss them and we completely respect their reasons for not being here. We've got 35 members of the family here and as as everyone knows that's enough to have a big party. Um, but you know, we're going through a very difficult time in the world. It's complicated and we want to protect Eurovision as a space where we celebrate and we show unity through music, but we're not naive and and when the world gets difficult, we are going to collide with it. When Israel's competitor took to the stage on Tuesday's semi-final, there were a handful of people removed from the stadium because of disruption that they'd caused. There's nothing really anticipated this evening. There will be protests tomorrow. Protests also scheduled for Saturday. The UK will also be on the stage tonight. But as one of the big five, the biggest contributors to the European Broadcasting Union, there may be some relief that the UK will automatically go through to the final.

[00:15:37]>> Our arts editor, Nina Nana, reporting from Vienna.

[00:15:41]The Princess of Wales has begun the second day of her working trip in Italy with a factf finding mission at a preschool. Kate is traveling with the Royal Foundation Center for Early Childhood in her first royal visit since her cancer treatment. Our Royal editor, Chris Ship, is in the city of Reario Amelia. Chris, what's uh she seen today?

[00:16:05]>> Yeah. Hi, Nina. Good afternoon from here. Well, I have to say if you wanted to find uh an example of how they teach young children, preschool children differently here, uh which is what the visit of of the Princess Wales is all about, then you couldn't have found a better school than the one she went to uh this morning, which is where they teach children from uh birth effectively to age six and very much immerse them uh in nature. the school she went to. She was handling nes. She was picking up uh all sorts of things off the ground. She was talking to the children there. And it's the kind of interest that Kate uh h has a lot of focus on. Kensington Palace call it her life's work. And she's very much somebody who cares deeply about this and wants to get examples from here in Italy, bring them back to the UK and we're told also she'll go to other countries overseas. So, a very busy trip that she's had for these two days. As you mentioned, the first time she's been abroad since her cancer diagnosis. And this town, Reggie Amelia, really has welcomed her with open arms. There were actually people lining the streets uh from the hotel she's staying in outside uh this uh this town all the way into the school today. So, they've welcomed her with open arms and they really really uh have valued her visit and uh well, they they'd have her back at any moment, I'm sure. So yeah, I think if you're looking back on how this has gone, Nina Fate over the last couple of days uh really really well and she's got a lot of information to take back to the UK with her and she's told us that she's spoken to her children about the visit when she phoned them last night.

[00:17:42]>> Chris Ship, thank you very much. Enjoy that sunshine out there in Italy. We're here in the in the rain in Downing Street. Uh to go back to our top story, Wes Streeting's resignation, our political editor, Robert Pess, is with me. Uh here we go again. We've done this with the uh the Conservatives. It looks like we're now doing it with Labor leaders.

[00:18:03]>> Has the race begun?

[00:18:05]>> Not immediately. Uh Kestarma has said repeatedly that it will only start as and when a contender and it always looked as though Streeting would be the contender gets the 81 nominations and triggers a contest. And what a streeting has explicitly said today in resigning is that he does not want to start the contest until you've got the broadest range of candidates. And he is making it clear or his colleagues making it clear to me he does want Andy Burnham in the contest which means this contest would have to be delayed long enough for Burnham to at least try to get back into parliament by contesting a bi-election.

[00:18:46]So we're on a slow burn now. Uh I'm sure uh Kstama and his colleagues will say it's partly because they will allege actually West Streeting couldn't get the 81 nominations. People close to Streeting say he does have them.

[00:19:00]Impossible to prove either way or they'll say he's frit uh frightened and and and didn't want to be humiliated. In the streeting camp, what they would say is that streeting is himself. they would claim putting the future of the party above his personal ambition. He's plainly damaged by resigning in these uh circumstances. And what they assume, but it may turn out to be a brave bet, is that enough MPs and enough cabinet ministers will agree with him that the prime minister's time is up. That was, you know, one of the the striking messages in his letter. and will go in to see the prime minister at some point, you know, arguably in the next day or so, and just say, "Look, you know, streeting is right. We need to have a contest." But that it's but it's but it's a high-risk play by streing because, you know, whenever I've talked to those uh around the prime minister and even prime minister himself in recent weeks, he basically says he's here to stay and nobody's going to budge him. So this this leadership stuff could actually fizzle out as a result of streeting's resignation at least for a few weeks.

[00:20:12]>> Okay, fascinating times ahead and busy times ahead as well. Robert Pon, thank you very much. That's all from us. Mary will be here with the latest live from Downing Street at 6:30 from uh me and from Robert and the rest of the team here. Bye-bye.