Ed Miliband Calls on Labour to Move On After Starmer Offers Apology to Streeting for Aggressive Backgrounding

Senior Labour Party official Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has urged the party to leave behind party disputes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally apologised to health minister Wes Streeting over hostile briefings linked to the Prime Minister's office.

Key Updates

• Ed Miliband confirms Starmer will sack the Downing Street source behind for briefing against Wes Streeting if found
• Miliband dismisses future leadership aspirations, declaring his past experience as leader was the "strongest protection" against seeking the position again
• British economy grew by just 0.1 percent in the July-September period, impacted by the JLR cyber-attack

Context

The internal controversy erupted after reports surfaced about hostile briefings from Starmer's allies targeting the Health Secretary. Despite initial attempts to downplay the situation, the discussion between the PM and Streeting according to sources followed a more serious direction.

The Prime Minister expressed regret to Wes Streeting, reporters have been advised. The conversation was concise, and they did not address the chief of staff, whom Starmer is now under growing pressure to remove.

Miliband's Statement

In his morning media interviews, Ed Miliband stressed the need for the Labour Party to focus on national matters rather than party conflicts.

Clearly, I think the briefing has been bad, no question.

But my call to the Labour party today is quite simple, which is we need to prioritize the nation, not ourselves.

We were given a historic election win last summer, a historic chance to change our country. And we have a serious obligation.

Economic News

In other news, official statistics indicated the British economic performance increased by just 0.1% in the July-September period, with the production sector especially affected by the recently reported JLR hack.

The Day's Agenda

• 9.30am: NHS England publishes its latest statistics
• Today: Wes Streeting visits the Liverpool area
• Today: The Chancellor speaks to the journalists
• Late morning: Number 10 conducts its daily media briefing
• Today: Keir Starmer announces government plans for the Britain's first small modular reactor facility at Wylfa on Anglesey