62 Facts About Wes Streeting

Wesley Paul William Streeting is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2021, and Member of Parliament for Ilford North since 2015.

Wes Streeting served as Shadow Secretary of State for Child Poverty from May to November 2021, as Shadow Minister for Schools from 2020 to 2021, and as Shadow Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from April to October 2020.

Wes Streeting was president of the National Union of Students, and Deputy Leader of Redbridge London Borough Council.

Wes Streeting has five brothers, a sister and a stepsister.

Wes Streeting's maternal grandfather was an armed robber who spent time in prison, and his grandmother became embroiled in his crimes and ended up in Holloway jail, where she met Christine Keeler.

Wes Streeting was "really well read and well informed", and engaged his grandson in lively discussions about religion and politics.

Wes Streeting grew up in poverty living in a council flat.

Wes Streeting went on to study history at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.

Wes Streeting previously had left the Labour Party because he opposed its decision to enter the Iraq War; however, he says Tony Blair did not act with malign intent.

Wes Streeting came out as gay in his second year of university.

Wes Streeting served as Selwyn College's Junior Common Room President, in which capacity he was a member of Cambridge University Students' Union Council.

Wes Streeting was elected as President of the National Union of Students in April 2008 as a candidate from Labour Students, with the support of the Union of Jewish Students.

Wes Streeting had been a member of the NUS National Executive Committee since 2005, having previously held the post of Vice-President from 2006 to 2008.

Wes Streeting served as a member of the National Committee of Labour Students for four years during this time.

Wes Streeting's election was reported by The Guardian as "a move that will lend weight to the fight to modernise the union".

Wes Streeting was a non-executive director of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, as well as the Higher Education academy, having served on their board as Vice President when he was a non-executive director of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.

Shortly after his election as NUS President, Wes Streeting was appointed as a member of the government's Youth Citizenship Commission, chaired by Professor Jonathan Tonge of the University of Liverpool, which published its report in June 2009.

Wes Streeting supported university tuition fees as President, consistent with UK government policy during the New Labour years.

Wes Streeting worked for the Labour Party-related organisation Progress for a year.

Wes Streeting went on to serve as head of education at Stonewall, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity, where he led their Education for All campaign to tackle homophobia in schools.

Wes Streeting was a public sector consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, which he gave up on election as a councillor, because Redbridge Council was a "current audit client" of the firm; this forced him to choose between keeping his job or forcing a second by-election.

In 2010, shortly after leaving PwC, Wes Streeting was appointed as Head of Policy and Strategic Communications for Oona King's unsuccessful bid to win the Labour Party's nomination to be its candidate in the 2012 London Mayoral election.

Wes Streeting was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group in October 2011.

At a public meeting of the Redbridge Citizens' Assembly on 6 May 2014, Cllr Wes Streeting promised on behalf of his group that, if elected, he would not reduce the level of Council Tax Support provided to low-income working-age residents.

In May 2014, Labour took control of Redbridge Council for the first time and Wes Streeting was appointed Deputy Leader of the Council.

Wes Streeting resigned the latter in May 2015, shortly after being elected Member of Parliament for Ilford North.

Wes Streeting did not stand for re-election after being elected to Parliament, and ceased to be a councillor on 7 May 2018.

Wes Streeting is a Vice President of the Local Government Association and a Patron of LGBT Labour.

Wes Streeting accused Corbyn of a "flat-footed and lackadaisical attitude" to tackling antisemitism which is "simply unacceptable".

Wes Streeting's views provoked a response from Corbyn's supporters such as Ken Livingstone and the trade union leader Len McCluskey.

Wes Streeting was among the 70 per cent of Labour MPs who nominated Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.

Wes Streeting campaigned in favour of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Wes Streeting is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, a co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Jews and a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel.

Wes Streeting is a co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims and a supporter of Labour Friends of Palestine and Middle East.

In July 2018, Streeting called for "targeted economic sanctions" against Israeli settlements in the West Bank in response to the Israeli government "grossly infringing on the human rights of Palestinians".

In July 2019, Wes Streeting was reported in the media as using abusive language towards a non-Jewish antisemitism campaigner.

Shortly before the 2019 UK general election, Wes Streeting told a Labour First meeting that the party faced electoral oblivion in any snap poll due to the leadership's poor handling of Brexit and allegations of antisemitism.

Until the 2019 general election, Wes Streeting was a member of the Treasury Select Committee.

On 16 October 2020, Wes Streeting became Shadow Minister for Schools in succession to Margaret Greenwood, who had resigned the previous day following her opposition to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill.

Wes Streeting was promoted to the post of Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

On 9 November 2022, Wes Streeting was criticised after being overheard describing Corbyn as "senile" in the House of Commons.

Wes Streeting said the comment was made "in jest" and apologised to Corbyn for the comment later that day.

On health, in December 2021, in response to growing waiting times in the NHS, Wes Streeting said the way to reduce waiting times was better pay and conditions, while keeping a check on the six figure salaries of managers and management consultants.

Wes Streeting said that the UK government should concentrate on boosting wages for the lowest paid in the health sector.

Wes Streeting said that a Labour government would use whatever means necessary to ensure patients receive treatment, including using private health providers.

Wes Streeting said he would stress to the Treasury that investment in health and social care would boost the economy and focusing on prevention could save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Wes Streeting accused Corbyn of a "flat-footed and lackadaisical attitude" to tackling antisemitism, which was "simply unacceptable".

Wes Streeting was among the 70 per cent of Labour MPs who nominated Owen Smith in the 2016 party leadership election.

In January 2022, Wes Streeting revealed that he supported the use of private providers in the NHS to cut waiting lists, which was met with some criticism.

Wes Streeting's register of interests reveals that he received a donation from major private health investor Simon Armitage on 27 January 2022.

Wes Streeting campaigned in favour of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union in the run-up to the 2016 EU membership referendum.

Wes Streeting appeared in The Sun and tweeted a link to the article saying he would be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".

Wes Streeting is pro-devolution of power to give local authorities greater control over public policy.

Wes Streeting promoted the establishment of a Good Work Commission to bring together the relevant stakeholders to negotiate a new employment rights settlement.

Wes Streeting said he suggested "working with the best of British business to reform the worst of British capitalism".

Wes Streeting wants to tax capital gains on the same basis as income and suggested replacing inheritance tax with a lifetime gifts tax.

Wes Streeting has strongly criticised those campaigning against LGBT+ education in schools.

Wes Streeting is in a relationship with Joseph Dancey, a communications and public affairs adviser.

Wes Streeting, who is a practising Anglican, says his faith is "about compassion, not walking by on the other side".

In May 2021, Wes Streeting revealed he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer and would be stepping back from frontline politics while he received treatment for it.

Wes Streeting had received a phone call from his urologist informing him that tests, initially for kidney stones, revealed he had kidney cancer.

On 27 July 2021, Wes Streeting announced that he had been declared cancer-free, following an operation to remove one of his kidneys.