LONDON — Wes Streeting called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to step down during his first Commons speech since resigning as health secretary last week. Addressing MPs, he said he had quit the government because it was currently losing the fight against populist nationalism.

"I left the government because we are in the fight of our lives against nationalism, and it is a fight that we are currently losing. Unless we change course, we risk handing the keys of No 10 to Reform, and I do not want that on our consciences," Streeting said.

He had been expected to launch a formal leadership challenge but did not secure support from more than 80 Labour MPs. In his contribution to the King's Speech debate, he offered no direct criticism of Starmer and praised the prime minister for keeping the United Kingdom out of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Returning to the chamber, Streeting framed his resignation as a call to action for his party. "Never waste a minute – that's been my mantra in government, and it's why I don't believe our party has time to waste in government treading water. The Labour party was elected to deliver real change. We still can," he said.

He told MPs that nationalist movements now held power across the country. "For the first time in our history, nationalists are in power in every corner of the United Kingdom. Scottish and Welsh nationalism represents an existential threat to the future integrity of the United Kingdom, and Reform UK represent a threat to the values and ideals that have made this country great," he said.

He argued that the political debate around national identity had narrowed. "For too long and for too often, patriotism in Britain has been left to the loudest voices and the narrowest arguments, as though love of country belongs to one tribe, one party, or one point of view. But the Britain I believe in is bigger than that, because patriotism is not about who you exclude, it is about who you stand beside," he said.

He rejected what he described as the politics of division. "The nurse from Nigeria is not the enemy of the factory worker in Newcastle. The family fleeing war is not responsible for the cost of living crisis. Division is the oldest trick in politics, and Britain deserves better than that," he said.

He said young people had been let down by a system stacked against them, telling MPs that the inter-generational contract had broken down, leaving the young bearing the biggest burden from Covid, unable to afford a home, and at risk of being pushed out of the jobs market by artificial intelligence. He also reiterated his view that leaving the European Union had been a damaging mistake, noting that in his 2015 maiden speech he had argued none of the problems facing the country would be solved by leaving the EU. In a speech on Saturday, he said he would like to rejoin the bloc.