LONDON — Health Secretary Wes Streeting strongly rejected accusations Wednesday he is planning a coup to replace Keir Starmer after a night of extraordinary briefings meant to shore up the British prime minister’s position.

Allies of Starmer briefed multiple media outlets Tuesday evening that the prime minister expected, and would fight, a leadership challenge as soon as the end of this month, or following difficult local elections next May.

It comes less than 18 months after Starmer won a landslide election majority, and shows the level of disarray in the governing Labour Party as it struggles in the polls.

Streeting, widely regarded as a future leadership contender and seen as one of the government’s best communicators, was reported by the Guardian Tuesday evening as having 50 members of the government frontbench ready to stand down if Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget lands badly on Nov. 26.

“It’s totally self-defeating briefing, not least because it’s not true, and I don’t understand how anyone thinks it’s helpful to the prime minister,” Streeting shot back on Sky News Wednesday, stressing briefings from unnamed allies “distract from our ability to get across the message of the change we’re making.”

Streeting, who had been due on the airwaves to promote a government health plan, said “trying to kneecap one of your own team when they are out” making the case for the administration was “self-defeating and self-destructive behavior.”

Questioned by LBC if he had ambitions to take the top job, Streeting said: “Not if this is how people behave in your own house,” adding “this is ridiculous and no, the prime minister is not fighting for his job this morning … I think this is daft to be honest.”

Streeting said he was confident Starmer would lead Labour into the next election, due by 2029 — but admitted to the BBC: “It’s bad enough when events knock you off course to get your message across. It is worse still when self-defeating briefing knocks us off course.”

‘Fighting like dogs’

A No. 10 figure told POLITICO’s London Playbook Wednesday morning that the PM would “of course” fight any leadership challenge and an attack on his position would be “irresponsible” so close to the budget.

Openly discussing the threat to Starmer’s leadership highlights the seriousness his allies take the prospect of his removal from No 10. Greater Manchester Mayor and former Cabinet Minister Andy Burnham touted his own desire for the top job ahead of Labour’s conference in September, but his explicit positioning backfired.

“The boys in No. 10 are deluded,” one Labour MP, granted anonymity to speak freely, told Playbook, stressing they were turning the Parliamentary Labour Party against the PM because they “keep turning on their own Cabinet ministers with such vicious and paranoid briefing.” 

Labour MP Jo White, who chairs the influential Red Wall Caucus of backbench MPs representing seats in the competitive Midlands and northern England, said the briefing must stop.

“Our enemies love … nothing more than we start fighting like dogs in public,” White told the BBC. “My message to those MPs who are running around with their tails held high [is] that this is neither the time nor the place. This is a group of people who think they’re much cleverer than the rest of us who spend their time selectively briefing journalists and stirring the pot.”