Wes Streeting has revealed he does harbour ambitions to be prime minister one day, saying he would “die happy” if he had the chance to be a Labour leader like Keir Starmer, Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.
The shadow health secretary, often tipped to be a future party leader, has previously said he was “sick and tired” of being asked whether he would like the top job and that he would be too old for it after Starmer leaves the role.
But in an interview with the Guardian, Streeting spoke of how he had “never been ashamed of aiming high and going as far as my talents will take me”.
“I’m in politics to get things done. I want to change things for the better, and where better to do that than being sat around the cabinet table or being head of the cabinet table? Prime ministers have a huge amount of power, so why would you not want to be able to do that job?”
Having claimed he would be too old to take on the role after a two-term Labour government under Starmer, Streeting acknowledged that maybe this would not be too late for him.
He said: “I think I have a lot to prove before then. If I can take the NHS from the worst crisis in its history and make it fit for the future, and that’s all I ever achieve in politics, I’ll retire feeling very proud of that.
“And if my place in the history books is akin to Nye Bevan’s, I’d be more than happy. And if I got a chance to be a Keir Starmer or Tony Blair or Gordon Brown or [Harold] Wilson or [Clement] Attlee, I would die happy.”
The shadow health secretary repeatedly denied last year that he was poised to run for the leadership if Starmer was fined over a gathering in Durham during the pandemic – the police eventually cleared Starmer. that In the interview, he said that if it was true he had been “ruthlessly focused on the pursuit of the top job” then he would have had to “tack left”.
Streeting also spoke about Labour’s plans for the NHS if he got the job of health secretary in a Starmer government. He described the NHS as “dying on its knees” because of a “lack of investment and lack of reform”, but said it was salvageable.
He added: “It requires three big shifts: from an excessive focus on hospital care to more focus on neighbourhood and community services; from an analogue service to one that embraces the technological revolution; and from sickness to prevention. If it does all three things, it will be an NHS fit for the 21st century.”
Streeting said he led a “boring” life and his “idea of a great night is in front of the telly”, but that he could be considered a “bad binge drinker” on nights out. “That’s terrible messaging for the shadow health secretary, but I am a binge drinker,” he added.
