Speech of the Month, November 2025 - Wes Streeting

Not many people can feel too much sympathy when a political plot backfires, but when the person who was supposed to be knee-capped and humiliated ends up receiving an apology from the plotters’ boss because they performed so well on the morning media round, then we need to look at their performance and what they got right.

So yes, I’m talking about Wes Streeting on 12th Nov. Long story short, the day before, some of Keir Starmer’s aides had briefed journalists that Wes Streeting was going to call a leadership challenge if the budget - due on 26th Nov - wasn’t well received. They did this because they knew that on the morning of the 12th, Streeting was earmarked to do the morning media round; they knew his loyalty would be called into question and that he’d be forced to deny plotting a coup since admission would mean political suicide. However, after the round was done, it wasn’t Streeting who looked red-faced and ridiculous, but the people who’d leaked the claim, as Starmer ended up having to apologise to his possible would-be assassin.

If you missed this, here it is…

So here’s why Streeting turned a tricky situation into a triumph:

He used a topical analogy

By stating that the claims that he was plotting against Starmer were ‘about the worst attack on a faithful since Joe Marler was banished in the final,’ he immediately raised a smile. Everyone was bonkers about Traitors about the time, it was total water-cooler telly, so comparing his undeserved treatment to Marler’s resonated strongly with the general public.

It also gave him the chance to show that he was part of the Traitors conversation; that his finger was on the entertainment pulse. This isn’t something that we necessarily expect from politicians.

He wasn’t embarrassed to repeat his topical analogy

From the Today programme to Sky News and to GMTV, he repeated the same analogy. Many of us would feel embarrassed doing that, as if you should only use a line once. Don’t feel that way. A good line is a good line. How many times during a tour will Jimmy Carr or Lee Mack repeat the same lines? As long as the line is new to that audience, then go for it.

He went on the attack

Rather that simply denying the claims, he went on the attack and said that there was a toxic culture of briefing inside No10 which concerned him. He then belittled the briefers by saying that at least they’d picked on one of the boys this time – as previously it’s only been female MPs that have been briefed against – and went on to say the people who do this are ‘boys getting carried away.’ What a put-down.

Now, if he was innocent of the plotting charges, you think, 'Good on him.' But I suspect he wasn't. So to not only deny what's true on live TV but then go after your rightful accusers takes some chutzpah. 

He still managed to land his key messages

So Streeting knew that the bulk on the interviews would be taken up with questions over his loyalty, yet he still managed to drop in the messages that he wanted to talk about: delivering more NHS appointments than promised, delivering 1,000 more GPs that promised.

JFK, Lord Lucan, Shergar

One prepared line that I didn’t think worked so well, however, was the “Nor did I shoot JFK, I don’t know where Lord Lucan is…” sequence. This followed a question that asked him if he was going to rule out calling for Starmer’s resignation. I don’t think ruling something out in the future is comparable to being involved in some of the greatest mysteries of modern times. It felt a bit forced.

Still, it doesn’t matter because Streeting came out of the morning round thoroughly victorious.

I've got a feeling he’ll be ducking any morning rounds in the lead up to the May elections, mind.