Streeting faces backlash over messages accusing Israel of ‘war crimes’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’
Messages the Health Secretary sent to disgraced former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson have been made public
Wes Streeting accused Israel of “committing war crimes before our eyes” in Gaza and the Netanyahu government of talking “the language of ethnic cleansing” in messages sent to disgraced former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, it has emerged.
The Health Secretary also predicted he would be “toast” at the next election if the government did not change its stance on Gaza and become tougher on Israel.
Streeting wrote:”I fear we are in big trouble here – and I am toast at the next election.
“We just lost our safest ward in Redbridge (51% Muslim, Ilford South) to a Gaza independent. At this rate, I don’t think we’ll hold either of the two Ilford seats.”
The messages, released on Monday, were an apparent effort by the Health Secretary to be transparent about his friendship with the ex-peer, as he sought to win over support from Labour MPs for a possible leadership bid.
The messages, sent last July to disgraced former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, immediately sparked anger among Jewish Labour members, MPs confirmed.
Three Labour MPs who had attended a meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster on Monday night confirmed the messages had sparked anger amongst some Jewish party members after they were made public.
One MP was emailed by a member of the community asking:”Does he say one thing when he’s speaking to us at Labour Friends of Israel events, and another thing behind our backs?”
The WhatsApp messages, showed Streeting voicing his support for Palestine recognition, announced by Keir Starmer in September last year.
They used language clearly tougher than that used by Starmer since Israel launched its response to the October 7 Hamas attack in Gaza.
Streeting said there was a need to recognise a Palestinian state both morally and politically.
“Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes …. Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition and we will lose it if we’re not ahead of it,” he wrote.
Keir Starmer at Downing St press conference
Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
He added Israel’s government “talks the language of ethnic cleansing, and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.”
Streeting said that he had “never been a shrinking violet on Israel.”
He added he had supported the pro-Israel Labour Friends of Israel “for over 20 years”.
Mandelson responded that “I am worried that such a gesture now could blow a [two-state solution] out of the water”.
Streeting said that “Israel is doing it anyway”, and added: “This is rogue state behaviour. Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers.”
In a prediction that failed to materialise, Streeting said Labour Party conference last year would “be a sea of Palestinian flags and the moderates will be waving them.”
Elsewhere in the messages, Streeting said the government lacked a growth strategy and questioned No 10’s communications operation – remarks that appeared to form part of an effort to position himself for a potential leadership contest.
Allies of the health secretary say the WhatsApp messages, sent between August 2024 and October last year, now show he has “nothing to hide” about his relationship with Mandelson.
In an interview with Sky TV’s Beth Rigby on Monday night, Streeting said he privately suggested with Mandelson at a time when Starmer was going to visit Washington that he felt “we were in the wrong place on recognition of the state of Palestine, that we needed to support the recognition of the State of Palestine.”
” I was clear about where I stood in relation to the government of Israel and its actions,” he added.
Streeting also revealed he alerted the Foreign Sec that the messages were coming out: “I have made Yvette Cooper aware of what I’ve said about Palestine, Gaza, and the conduct of the Israeli government, and I hope that doesn’t cause colleagues difficulty because I am and always have been a team player,” he added.
After a packed PLP meeting, at which Streeting attended in Westminister on Monday, some MPs criticised his decision to time the leaking of the messages to coincide with what was a crunch meeting for Starmer.
The PM told Labour MPs he had “won every fight I’ve ever been in” as he vowed not to “walk away” amid calls for him to resign in Westminster on Monday in the wake of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar’s call for him to step down.
Flanked by his Cabinet, Starmer struck a defiant note, telling MPs: “After having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility to my country, or to plunge us into chaos as others have done.
Streeting also denied claims he had colluded with Sarwar ahead of his decision call for Starmer to resign at a press conference.
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