WES Streeting has been the Shadow Health Secretary since 2021.
Here we take look at the lives of Wes and his fiancé Joe Dancey — both of whom stood for Labour in the 2024 General Election.
Wesley Paul William Streeting is a Blairite who has been tipped to be a future Labour leader and prime minister, yet his upbringing is nothing like that of a typical politician.
While a great many MPs enjoy lives of unconditional privilege, the 41-year-old was brought up on a council estate in London’s East End to a single mum, who regularly had to pawn her jewellery to pay the bills.
His granddad Bill was a Royal Navy World War II veteran — but also a bank robber who hung out with the East End’s infamous Kray twins and spent his life in and out of jail.
His nan Libby ended up getting embroiled in Bill’s crimes and sharing a prison cell with Christine Keeler, the model at the heart of the Profumo Affair.
The MP for Ilford South since 2015 is a proud patriot who often talks of his love for King and country.
He held on to his seat in the 2024 General Election following a close race with independent candidate Leanne Mohammed.
Wes is expected to be named Health Secretary in Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet following Labour’s landslide victory.
He has warned the NHS must “reform or die” and has set himself the mammoth task of fixing it — a goal that could seal his political fate.
Appointed Shadow Health Secretary in November 2021, he is a passionate campaigner for structural change within the crumbling health service.
Ending the junior doctors’ strikes, cutting back on bureaucracy and overpaid middle managers, and implementing new technology, will play a big part in his plans to reform the NHS.
In May 2024, the kidney cancer survivor exclusively told The Sun: “Oh, I’m an unashamed champagne socialist, but that is what aspiration is all about.
“But I am also partial to a pint, which isn’t perhaps ideal when you only have one kidney.
“What’s my weekly unit intake? “Technically, I’m not sure . . . I think my public health approach is probably ‘do as I say and not as I do’.
“It’s why I always try to be realistic about what we can expect people to do in terms of their own health and wellbeing.
“I’m normally quite honest with my GP now, but only because I’m Shadow Health Secretary, so I feel duty-bound to be honest.
“But no one else tells the truth, and I think doctors know that as well.
I don’t want there to be a ceiling on the ambitions of any young LGBT person in our country
Wes Streeting
“Surviving cancer, having surgery to remove a kidney, has made me think more about my life and how I want to spend it and what I really value in life.
“In some ways it’s been a life-affirming experience, in a way I would not have expected.”
in 2023, Wes released is autobiography One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up: A Memoir of Growing Up and Getting On — the title clearly a nod to his working class roots.
He has been with his partner Joe Dancey, whom he lives with in Redbridge, London, for nearly 12 years, and the couple got engaged in May 2022.
When asked if he would like to be Britain’s first openly gay MP, Wes told us: “Ha, that’s a good question because yeah, we have probably had one or two or more before.
“I don’t want there to be a ceiling on the ambitions of any young LGBT person in our country.
“Every time I have answered this question directly it leads to unhelpful headlines. I am very happy with my lot in life.”
Joe Dancey helped to organise the London 2012 Olympics as executive assistant to Lord Sebastian Coe, and was responsible for looking after then-Prime minister David Cameron during the games.
He grew up in Eaglescliff, Stockton-on-Tees, and his mother Mary was a Labour councillor.
In the 2024 General Election, Dancey stood as the MP for the new constituency Stockton West.
He came in a close second to Conservative MP Matt Vickers, who had a massive majority of 5260 when he won Stockton South in 2019 — the seat which was abolished as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.
Before the election Dancey said: “It’s a new seat but I think there’s a lot of common experiences.
“People might live in different places but people have got some really common concerns in their lives, I’m finding.
“I think the thing people are most worried about is cost of living. People’s mortgages are going up, the price of food is going up.”
