Energy Secretary Ed Miliband Urges Labour to Focus Forward After Starmer Offers Apology to Streeting for Aggressive Media Leaks

High-ranking Labour Party official Ed Miliband has urged the party to move beyond party tensions after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer personally apologised to health minister Wes Streeting over damaging briefings coming from Number 10.

Important Updates

• Miliband states the Prime Minister will fire the Downing Street staffer behind for briefing against Streeting if identified
• The Energy Secretary rules out future leadership ambitions, saying his previous experience as leader was the "strongest inoculation" against desiring the position again
• British economic growth grew by just 0.1% in the third quarter, affected by the Jaguar Land Rover security breach

Context

The political turmoil began after allegations circulated about hostile background comments from the Prime Minister's team targeting the Health Secretary. Although early attempts to dismiss the incident, the talk between Starmer and Streeting according to sources followed a different direction.

Starmer said sorry to Streeting, the media have been told. The exchange was brief, and they did not talk about Morgan McSweeney, whom the PM is now under increasing scrutiny to sack.

The Energy Secretary's Response

In his early morning broadcast interviews, Ed Miliband highlighted the need for the Labour Party to concentrate on country-wide matters rather than internal divisions.

Look, I think the backgrounding has been bad, certainly.

But my advice to the Labour party today is clear, which is we need to prioritize the country, not our internal matters.

We were given a significant election win last July, a major chance to improve our country. And we have a historic obligation.

Economic News

Separately, official figures revealed the UK economic performance grew by just 0.1 percent in the July-September period, with the manufacturing industry especially hit by the recently reported Jaguar Land Rover security incident.

Today's Schedule

• Morning: The National Health Service publishes its monthly data
• Today: The Health Secretary visits Liverpool
• Morning: The Chancellor speaks to the press
• Late morning: Downing Street conducts its regular lobby briefing
• Morning: Keir Starmer promotes plans for the UK's pioneering small modular reactor facility at Wylfa on the island of Anglesey