# Streeting resigns - but can he trigger a leadership contest? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/streeting-resigns-but-can-he-trigger-a-leadership-contest Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/streeting-resigns-but-can-he-trigger-a-leadership-contest.md Podcast: [The New Statesman Podcast, Subscriber Only Edition](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815) Published: 2026-05-14T14:56:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/nssubscribers1913/26-05-14_Podcast_2.mp3?dest-id=814410 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/episodes/streeting-resigns-but-can-he-trigger-a-leadership-contest Duration seconds: 1719 ## Resource Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary on Thursday morning, but Ailbhe Rea says Keir Starmer is determined to fight on. After days of speculation – and a 16-minute meeting at Number 10 – Wes Streeting has finally resigned from cabinet. On the same day, Angela Rayner has announced she has been "cleared" of wrongdoing related to unpaid property tax, which would leave her free to run in a leadership contest if one is triggered. However, sources inside Number 10 have told Ailbhe Rea that Wes Streeting does not have the backing of enough MPs to trigger a leadership contest. So what is the former Health Secretary hoping to achieve? And if a leadership contest were triggered, who else would be likely to run? Ailbhe Rea and Anoosh Chakelian discuss the latest from Westminster in The Politics Show. READ: Wes Streeting resigns with an excoriating letter to Starmer ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/episodes/streeting-resigns-but-can-he-trigger-a-leadership-contest/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-new-statesman-podcast-subscriber-only-edition-1939815/streeting-resigns-but-can-he-trigger-a-leadership-contest.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.