Just over a year after Keir Starmer entered Downing Street, his political survival already looks uncertain. Perennially indecisive, unpopular with the public and unable to pass major legislation without rebellions, the prime minister has reportedly been put “on notice” by senior figures within his party. Speculation about a potential successor is mounting.

What would Labour’s dominant faction – the neo-Blairite right – look for in a candidate? Their best bet would be an effective operator who doesn’t carry too much political baggage, a decent communicator, free of Starmer’s stumbling reticence, and a committed partisan of their cause: namely the free market and a strong state. They need someone who will go on the offensive for these values, rather than offering the bland apologetics that we have seen from the incumbent.

Few fit the bill better than the health secretary, Wes Streeting, who has made no secret of his ambition to lead the country and appears to have spent years laying the groundwork with media rounds, donor events and backroom conversations. When Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party was on the brink during the Beergate scandal, Peter Mandelson is said to have canvassed the Labour frontbench to anoint Streeting. “In the longer term,” briefed one party source, “Wes is their guy, not Keir.”

Born into a working-class east London family in 1983, Streeting has been fairly consistent in both his political style and outlook since he was in his early 20s. A pugnacious advocate of private enterprise, and an effective behind-the-scenes operator, his deft handling of the press allows him to stride into the limelight at crucial moments, with memorable one-liners that seem crafted to enrage his opponents. As president of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the twilight of the New Labour era, he inveighed against lecturers’ strikes,

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