Wes Streeting has insisted he has the number of MPs required to trigger a Labour leadership contest as he set out his vision for Britain’s economy.
Asked whether he had the 81 Labour MPs needed to start a contest to challenge the Prime Minister, the Ilford North MP said: “Yes I have the support I need to be on the ballot.”
The former Health Secretary, who set out his economic prospectus in a speech in London on Tuesday, has said he will run to be the Labour leader if a contest is called and urged Sir Keir to set a timetable for his departure if Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection on Thursday.
Asked whether he had the support of enough colleagues to be the one that ousts Sir Keir, Mr Streeting replied: “As much as I can, I am going to resist being drawn into politics, process, personalities, because I want the contest to be a battle of ideas, not just a clash of personalities or an obsession with political drama.
“Yes I have the support I need to be on the ballot. Yes, I think we will be better served if that is a contest and a battle of ideas, not just of personalities.”
Mr Streeting added that his party should not “allow petty factional interests to get in the way” of what he described as a “necessary and urgent debate about how progressive politics can shape this country for the better”.
He pointed to the results of May’s elections, which resulted in nationalist parties “in power in every corner of the United Kingdom”.
The Labour leadership hopeful opened the economic speech by saying he would “resist jumping on recent events and the row about defence spending”.
“It does underline the case for change, the need for stronger leadership, and a serious plan to arrest and reverse Britain’s decline,” the MP said.
“I am going to set out an alternative vision for Britain’s future, a Britain that grows again and grows together, and an argument for the progressive capitalism we need to get us there.”
Mr Streeting also warned that Labour cannot fall into a trap of potential leadership rivals making the “most expensive and popular pledges” which only appeal to the “party faithful”.
He said: “There is a risk that a Labour leadership contest becomes a Dutch auction of the most expensive and popular pledges to appeal to the party faithful at the expense of the British people. Not on my watch.
“We can’t play fast and loose with the public finances or the trust of the people. Not when the risks are so high and faith in politics is so low.
“As I’ve said on my leaflets in Ilford North at every general election: you may not always agree with me, but you’ll always know where I stand.
“You won’t find me making pledges to win your vote in a leadership election only to let you down after the ballots are counted.”
In what appeared to dig at his main leadership rival Mr Burnham, who once criticised the Government for being “in hock” to the bond markets, Mr Streeting added: “Bond markets are not Bond villains and fiscal rules matter.
“Fiscal discipline matters because credibility is the precondition for an activist state. With debt approaching 100 per cent of GDP, Britain has very little room for error.”
Sir Keir insisted he would “bring back the change that people desperately need”, as he pledged “to carry on with what I was elected to do” ahead of the Makerfield by-election.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in France about his position, the Prime Minister said: “So very many times on my political journey, people have said to me it’s not possible.
“They said it’s not possible to turn the Labour Party around. It’s not possible to win an election.
“It’s not possible if you do win an election to invest in your public services and stabilise the economy – wrong every time, and that’s why I intend not to walk away from this, but to carry on with what I was elected to do, which is to serve this country, bring back the change that people desperately need in their lives.”
