Wes Streeting, who resigned as UK health secretary this week, has announced he will run to replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister after the party suffered disastrous local election results.
"We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I'll be standing," Streeting told a think tank event on Saturday in London two days after Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham unveiled a bid to become an MP.
If successful, that would allow Burnham to run in a Labour leadership contest that now appears all but inevitable, though it is yet to be formally triggered by MPs.
Streeting, in his resignation letter on Thursday, said he had "lost confidence" in Starmer's leadership.
Streeting noted that what comes next should be "a battle of ideas; it needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates".
Starmer has been under pressure from dozens of lawmakers calling for his resignation.
Earlier this week, four junior ministers resigned from the Cabinet.
The pressure follows a series of damaging setbacks for Labour in last week's elections.
In Wales, the party suffered a historic defeat in the Senedd elections, while in Scotland, the Scottish National Party retained power for a fifth consecutive term in the Scottish Parliament.
The elections, held across Scotland, Wales, and 136 English local authorities, were the largest electoral test since Labour’s landslide victory in the 2024 general election.
Since then, Starmer has expressed that he will "get on with governing" despite growing pressure over Labour’s recent election defeat and calls for him to resign.
However, more than 80 lawmakers, as well as some of his Cabinet members, have called for him to resign immediately or set a timetable for his leave.
