Wes Streeting was accused of ‘open leadership manoeuvres’ last night after unleashing one of Labour’s strongest attack so far on Nigel Farage.

The Health Secretary faced claims that he was positioning himself as the man to succeed Sir Keir Starmer after telling colleagues how to take on the menace of ‘the populist right’.

He told Labour colleagues that the antidote to Mr Farage’s ‘miserabilist declinist vision’ for Britain’s future was to carry through real reform to the NHS.

Mr Streeting’s rousing call to arms was coupled with a pledge to save £650 million in one year alone by cutting NHS spending on ‘rip-off staffing agencies’.

However, last night, he was accused by friends and foes alike of pitching himself as the man with the charisma and vision to replace the Prime Minister.

Mr Farage told the Mail on Sunday: ‘He clearly sees himself as the next leader.

‘But it’s the Labour government who are the miserabilists – we’re the happy, optimistic ones.’

And one senior Labour MP agreed the Health Secretary was ‘on open leadership manoeuvres’, saying: ‘This is Wes clearly staking his claim to succeed Keir.

Wes Streeting was accused of ‘open leadership manoeuvres’ last night after unleashing one of Labour ’s strongest attack so far on Nigel Farage

The Health Secretary told Labour colleagues that the antidote to Mr Farage’s ‘miserabilist declinist vision’ for Britain’s future was to carry through real reform to the NHS

The Health Secretary told Labour colleagues that the antidote to Mr Farage’s ‘miserabilist declinist vision’ for Britain’s future was to carry through real reform to the NHS 

The Health Secretary faced claims that he was positioning himself as the man to succeed Sir Keir Starmer

‘Some of our MPs on the Right will see him as the one with the charisma to take Farage on.

‘But many on the Left and even the moderate Left will see him as just a pale imitation of Tony Blair and go nowhere near him.’

The claims come with Labour MPs increasingly nervous at the Farage threat, with polls suggesting Reform is now almost neck and neck with Sir Keir’s party.

And in a speech to the Fabian Society conference yesterday, Mr Streeting warned: ‘The populist right are coming for us.

‘We need to be serious about beating them.’

The Health Secretary made clear that that involved bringing about real reform to the NHS, and defying Reform and Tory hopes that Labour would fail.

He said: ‘If we don’t turn the NHS around, they will have the chance to beat us at the ballot box and overturn 76 years of universal healthcare, publicly funded, free at the point of need’.

Mr Farage responded last night by saying: ‘Wes Streeting is so scared of Reform that he has now resorted to lying about our plans for the NHS.

The Health Secretary made clear that that involved bringing about real reform to the NHS, and defying Reform and Tory hopes that Labour would fail

Mr Farage responded last night by saying: ‘Wes Streeting is so scared of Reform that he has now resorted to lying about our plans for the NHS’

‘Let me be clear, the NHS will always be free at the point of delivery under a Reform government.’

However, Mr Streeting hit back by posting on X a report that Mr Farage had himself previously said: ‘If you can afford it, you pay; if you can’t, you don’t.’

Sources close to Mr Streeting also dismissed talk of leadership manoeuvres as ‘total rubbish’, stressing that he had finished his speech with a tribute to how Sir Keir had changed Labour and won the General Election.

Mr Streeting also unveiled plans yesterday to stop all NHS spending on expensive outside agency staff.

Under a ‘Plan for Change’, he said that all NHS trusts in England would be expected to slash such spending by at least 30 per cent next year– saving £650m in one year to reinvest in the frontline, based on current spending levels.

The Health Secretary said: ‘The NHS should not be forced into wasting billions on rip-off staffing agencies while patients are left languishing on waiting lists.

‘This staggering waste of taxpayers’ money must e

‘This Government will begin cracking down on use of agency staff and reinvest the savings in the frontline, to deliver our Plan for Change and cut waiting times.

Mr Streeting also unveiled plans yesterday to stop all NHS spending on expensive outside agency staff

‘We are also training more staff, so the NHS has the workforce it needs to treat patients on time again.’

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) officials said that strict agency spending limits will be set for each financial year, which Trusts will not be allowed to exceed.

They claimed that this was a major step towards the government’s ambition of stamping out the use of agency staff from the NHS entirely.

The DHSC added that in the last financial year, the NHS was forced to spend £3 billion hiring agency healthcare workers including doctors and nurses.

It insisted that agency spending was already coming down.

But a further reduction by 30 per cent was still expected to save the health service hundreds of millions of pounds, improve quality of care for patients, and enhance safety.

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