Wes Streeting Piles More Pressure On Keir Starmer In Wake Of Labour's By-Election Humiliation

<div><img src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/68fdc68018000060b0e8f57f.jpeg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale" alt="Wes Streeting's comments have raised eyebrows." data-caption="Wes Streeting's comments have raised eyebrows." data-credit-link-back="" data-credit="via Associated Press" />Wes Streeting's comments have raised eyebrows.</div><div class="content-list-component text"><p><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/wes-streeting/">Wes Streeting</a> has piled more pressure on <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/keir-starmer/">Keir Starmer</a> by comparing <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/labour-party/">Labour’s</a> humiliation <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/blow-for-nigel-farage-as-reform-uk-fail-to-win-key-by-election_uk_68fb05a9e4b03bb1113167f0">Caerphilly by-election defeat </a>to the day the prime minister almost quit as party leader.</p><p>The health secretary said the result – which saw Labour receive just 11% of the vote in their former stronghold – was like <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/conservatives-win-hartlepool-by-election_uk_6094c18ce4b05bee44c7ec88">a similar seismic loss in Hartlepool </a>in 2021.</p><p>Starmer contemplated resigning after that defeat to the Tories, which came just a year after he had succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.</p><p>In an interview with <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-by-election-labour-defeat-records-7kfznkjdh" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Sunday Times,</a> Streeting said: “When we were in opposition, we were shocked that Hartlepool — a town that had always been loyal to Labour — rejected us at the ballot box.&