Wes Streeting will on Tuesday pledge to introduce emergency laws to bypass planning red tape and speed up the building of nuclear power plants, data centres and transport links — a direct challenge to Sir Keir Starmer less than 24 hours after the Prime Minister warned a leadership contest would plunge the country into “chaos.”
The former Health Secretary and potential Labour leadership challenger will set out his economic blueprint for Britain in a speech, promising legislation to give the government new powers to approve entire categories of projects, rather than letting individual schemes be held up by sluggish processes. His team pointed to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, approved by the government in 2016, which has still not been built.
“Streeting to propose emergency laws for faster infrastructure; speech comes as Starmer warns leadership contest would cause chaos.”
“We used to be a country that could do great things,” Streeting will say. “If Parliament can act in days to save British Steel, it can act with urgency to save Britain’s future prosperity. Successive governments have been sleeping, while Britain’s crying out for action. I will pass emergency laws to build data centres, nuclear power generation, transport infrastructure connecting people with jobs, and more. We still can build the infrastructure to grow our economy, we have to, and — if I become Prime Minister — we will.”
Streeting resigned from the Cabinet last month after Labour’s drubbing in the local elections and called on Starmer to step down. He has insisted he will enter the leadership race if a contest is triggered. That trigger could come on Thursday, if the Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, wins the crucial Makerfield by-election against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, according to aides bracing for a challenge.
Starmer, speaking on Monday, warned against a battle for the top job. “I don’t think we should have a challenge, because I think it’ll throw the country into chaos. If there is a challenge, I will fight. I’m not going to walk away from this. We won a landslide victory just two years ago with a clear mandate to change the country, that’s a five-year mandate.”
The speech comes at a make-or-break moment for the Prime Minister, with the by-election result looming as the potential spark for a contest that could reshape Labour’s leadership — and the nation’s infrastructure ambitions.