YouGov poll shows that Labour would bag just 5 MPs in 2029 under Wes Streeting’s leadership

With rumours of a leadership challenge swirling, YouGov polling demonstrating that Labour-right darling Wes Streeting is somehow an even worse option than Keir Starmer has resurfaced on social media.

The widely reposted infographic was highlighted by Stats for Lefties on May 11. It shows a Streeting-led Labour receiving just 5 seats in the 2029 general election, based on polling from 28 January 2026:

🗳️POLL | #GE2029 with Streeting as PM:

➡️Ref: 32% (+17)
🟢Grn: 21% (+14)
🔵Con: 15% (-9)
🔴Lab: 15% (-20)
🟠Lib: 11% (-2)

{ Seats }
➡️Ref: 373 (+368)
🟢Grn: 101 (+97)
🟠Lib: 72 (-)
🟡SNP: 47 (+38)
🔵Con: 17 (-104)
🟩Plaid: 10 (+6)
🔴Lab: 5 (-406)

Poll: @YouGov, 28 Jan 2026 pic.twitter.com/13HmCGvTCx

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) May 11, 2026

Streeting somehow worse than Starmer

Streeting’s hypothetical Labour Party would draw just 15% of the vote share. Meanwhile, Reform would take a sweeping majority, with the Greens in second. That being said, the Lib Dems’ vote share would barely change, because even the centrists don’t care for poor Wesley.

Because the health secretary has all of the political guile of a goldfish, the fact that he’s got his eyes on Starmer’s job is one of Westminster’s most poorly kept secrets:

Senior Labour source: “Wes has spent six months doing everything he could to bring down the Labour government while publicly denying it. Now everyone can see him for what he is: a self interested lizard.” https://t.co/KXG8f13byr

— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) May 11, 2026

As is tradition at the Canary, I turn now to the immortal words of Dawn Foster:

Wes Streeting is THE absolute worst. An irredeemable lickspittle cunt. pic.twitter.com/1sA3mSsoAw

— Jason Reid (@JasonReidx) July 12, 2024

Of course, we’re not just quoting that idly – the prick is deep in the pocket of private healthcare (whilst also eroding the NHS), proposed segregating trans people, and takes any chance he can to bash striking doctors. A “right wing lickspittle cunt” indeed.

But then, we would say that. So, let’s see what the general public thinks of the guy – maybe opinions have gone up since the January polls. Here’s some solid data from YouGov again:

Around 66% of the general public have actually heard of Streeting. Meanwhile, the majority of the people who have heard of him don’t like him. I particularly love that the shapes of the ‘know of him’ and ‘dislike him’ lines are almost identical.

‘It’s time for Wes!’

Obviously, social media had a field day with the idea of Streeting as the Labour right’s best hope.

The Labour Right are still yet to realise how toxic Streeting is to voters. He’d genuinely sink Labour to under 10% in the polls. https://t.co/Bwq1lbmHeG

— Hugo Papé 💚🌱🌍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇵🇸 (@HugoPap2) May 11, 2026

He’d definitely finish what Starmer started:

I said this the other day but it genuinely speaks volumes to how out of touch with reality the Labour Party is that they would even entertain the possibility of replacing Keir Starmer with Wes Streeting.

It would be an extinction-inducing decision. https://t.co/2HoEroZV87

— thelefttake (@thelefttake) May 11, 2026

Do we think Wes Streeting would be ruinous for the country? Yes. Do we think he’d be ruinous for the NHS? Also yes. Do we want him to spend even more time behind a microphone? God no.

I never thought I’d say it, but Starmer is definitely the better option here. That said, if it was only the modern Labour Party that Streeting’s leadership would burn to the ground, I’d be singing a very different tune:

It’s time for Wes! https://t.co/TGB4KdnYkS pic.twitter.com/WsFLGmQwkM

— Northern Greens (@VoteGreenNorth) May 11, 2026

‘A stronger version of Labour’

In his belly-flop of a speech yesterday, 11 May, Keir Starmer mused that:

This is nothing less than a battle for the soul of our nation. And I want to be crystal clear about how we will win it. Because we cannot win as a weaker version of Reform or the Greens, we can only win as a stronger version of Labour, a mainstream party of power, not protest.

I put it to you that Wes Streeting is the absolute apex example of the current Labour Party. I genuinely don’t think the even the Tony Blair Institute and Labour Together could conjure up a more lackluster right-wing shill if they designed him in a fucking lab.

And, as the YouGov polling shows, that “stronger version” of new-new-Labour most definitely could not win against Reform and the Greens. Hell, even with the whole UK to aim at, Streeting’s Labour couldn’t even beat Plaid Cymru.

Featured image via the Canary