Ed Miliband has said he is certain Keir Starmer will sack whoever briefed against Wes Streeting, after a chaotic 48 hours in which No 10 launched an operation to shore up the prime minister against an anticipated leadership challenge.
The prime minister apologised to the health secretary in a phone call with him late on Wednesday. Starmer is facing mounting calls to sack his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, over the row.
The Guardian reported that in private meetings with MPs on Wednesday, the prime minister stood by McSweeney and would not directly commit to any consequences for those who had briefed the newspapers.
Starmer spoke to senior Downing Street staff on Thursday morning to stress that “briefings against cabinet ministers are completely unacceptable”, his deputy spokesperson said.
He “made abundantly clear the high standards that he expects from staff, and if anyone falls below those standards there will be consequences”, they said.
“The PM said he had been assured that no No 10 staff briefed against ministers” and that he accepted the assurances.
Asked why Starmer had apologised to Streeting if he did not believe the health secretary had been briefed against by No 10, the spokesperson said the PM had “apologised for the situation that the health secretary was in”.
Starmer, in a TV clip recorded during a visit to north Wales, told broadcasters he had warned his team against such briefings. He said: “I have been assured it didn’t come from Downing Street, but I have been equally clear that whether it is this case or any other, I intend to deal with it.”
Asked if he would sack anyone found to have briefed, Starmer said he would “absolutely deal with anybody responsible for briefing against ministers”.
Miliband said he believed Starmer would not have authorised any of the personal attacks, but said briefing was a “longstanding aspect of politics”.
“I’ve talked to Keir before about this kind of briefing that happens and as he always says, if he finds the person, he’ll get rid of them. And I absolutely believe he would do that,” he told Sky News.
In further attempts to contain the row, the Labour chair, Anna Turley, told ITV on Wednesday night that there would be an investigation into who had specifically briefed against Streeting and that Starmer would “take action” against the culprit. It is not believed to be a formal leak inquiry.
Miliband told Sky News that Starmer would “hate all this nonsense” but said it was a common problem in politics.
“I hate the culture of briefing. But there is a longstanding aspect of politics. As I say, I was there between Blair and Brown … So look, these things unfortunately happen, but what matters is staying focused on the mission.
“Turbulence is part of the gig, is part of the DNA of being in government. What gets you through is keeping your eyes on the prize of what you care about, what you’re trying to do.”
Streeting mounted a furious defence of his actions on morning shows on Wednesday, saying: “Whoever has been briefing this has been watching too much Celebrity Traitors. It’s the most unjustified attack against the faithfuls since Joe Marler was banished in the final.”
However, Labour MPs were left scratching their heads at the timing of Downing Street’s intervention, which the Guardian revealed on Tuesday night, with the focus switching to whether McSweeney could survive in post.
One cabinet minister said: “If it was an orchestrated campaign to shore up the PM, then it’s had the opposite effect; it’s spectacularly backfired. I don’t see how Morgan can survive when Keir has ended up in a weaker position than before.”
One minister said they thought No 10’s paranoia was partly justified. “I will defend them to a degree because everyone can see that Wes is in fact running a leadership campaign and that it has been the talk of the PLP [parliamentary Labour party]. We know that. We can see it.
“But I don’t think they intended to personalise this about Wes, and that has been their great mistake. They wanted to show Keir had some fight in him and it has backfired catastrophically.”
