Wes Streeting is Labour’s flavour of the month – but be careful, it might not last

Politics and hipsterdom have few things in common, but they both abhor a vacuum, writes Marie Le Conte

There is, at the moment, no escape from Wes Streeting (PA)

About a decade ago, I was young, and fresh, and cooler than I am now, and I lived in east London. I moved in artsy, hipster circles, and everyone was bold, and beautiful, and achingly well dressed. It was not a world that had a lot in common with Westminster. Well, apart from one exception: the “flavour of the month”.

Back in those days, an acquaintance once made the point that Dalston always had one person who would appear seemingly out of nowhere, charm everyone, be featured in every trendy magazine, be found at every party, then slowly fade into the background. Once they did, someone else would replace them; our world would find a new flavour of the month.

It wasn’t a good or a bad thing; only the most insecure would get jealous of the FotM. The rest of us knew that it was just a part of the ecosystem. Still, it was amusing to witness people rising and falling like waves, like clockwork.

A similar thing happens in British politics. It took me a little while to spot the resemblance, but once I did, it became hard to avoid. You never hear about a particular frontbencher, then there is one TV appearance, or one magazine interview, and suddenly they are everywhere. There are backbenchers who go about their business quietly for years – then something happens, and they are all people want to talk about.

Right now, for example, Wes Streeting is flavour of the month. In the past week alone, The Guardian published the suspicious-sounding “Labour heavyweight Wes Streeting denies plan to succeed Starmer”, and the Financial Times asked: “Is Wes Streeting the saviour Labour desperately needs?” The New Statesman went further, two days ago, making the case for “Why Wes Streeting should be the next Labour leader”. There is, at the moment, no escape from Wes Streeting.

Because this is Westminster, opinion is divided. Labour centrists see him as an adequate torch-bearer for the Blairism they feel Keir Starmer is refusing to fully embrace; the Labour left bristles at the mere mention of someone so obviously not of their ilk; and Starmerites – all seven of them – resent the idea that their leader will go any time soon (Beergate investigation notwithstanding).

It would be possible to look at this media circus and conclude that it spells bad news for Starmer, and that a more confident leader would not allow such blatant briefing from the camp of a rival only two years after taking the post. I am not sure that would be correct. Plotting is to Labour what breathing is to the rest of us, and there will always be grumbling in a parliamentary party, no matter how well a leader is doing.

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Speaking of which, the party is doing fine at the moment. It is not doing brilliantly, but it is not doing terribly either. Starmer is doing well in the polls, and in focus groups he isn’t quite seen as the second coming of our lord and saviour, but he is not reviled. Things could be going better, but – especially looking at the party’s recent and not-so-recent history – it could be doing considerably worse.

The only problem, really, is that Keir Starmer’s Labour is a bit boring. There aren’t many fiery internal rows about policy, there’s not much bitter infighting in the shadow cabinet, and there’s no salacious gossip about prominent figures. You can take it from this columnist: writing something compelling about the opposition right now is easier said than done. This, I would wager, is why there is so much noise around Wes Streeting at the moment.

In Westminster, as in east London, people compulsively need other people to talk about; it is just a part of the ecosystem. Politics and hipsterdom have few things in common, but they do both abhor a vacuum. It is nothing to worry about; it is normal. I do not mean this as an insult to Wes Streeting, by the way: he is an entirely competent politician, and he is likeable. It’s just that, well, most flavours of the month are.