The role of Health Secretary is one of the most high-profile jobs in government. It brings visibility, constant media attention, and the chance to shape the NHS - one of the institutions people care about most. Unsurprisingly, a number of previous Health Secretaries have attempted to use this role as a springboard into No.10, without success. Jeremy Hunt, Alan Johnson, Andy Burnham and Ken Clarke were all seen as potential party leaders, yet none ultimately ascended to the premiership.
The explanation is straightforward: serving as Health Secretary is among the most demanding roles in the Cabinet. The post involves managing a service under constant pressure, constrained by tight budgets, rising demand and a workforce acutely aware of its challenges. Unlike in many other departments, difficulties in health are highly visible and materialise quickly: through hospital waiting times, ambulance delays or industrial action. If you can handle the health portfolio, you can handle the top job, so the theory goes.
Jeremy Hunt is a good example. As the longest-serving Health Secretary, he earned a reputation for steadiness and resilience, steering the department through difficult years and championing patient safety and care reforms. Yet he also faced some of the NHS’s toughest disputes, notably the junior doctors’ strikes, leaving him with significant political baggage when he later ran for Conservative leadership. For Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham, the department became more of a constraint than a launchpad, while even Ken Clarke’s widely respected health reforms sparked controversy that complicated his leadership prospects.
The current Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, continues to navigate his own challenges, particularly the ongoing doctors’ strikes. His approach has been notably firm. Departing from Labour’s traditional instinct to align closely with trade unions, he has instead emphasised the need for balance. In addressing the doctors’ dispute, he used firm language, warning that “if you go to war with us, you’ll lose”. This choice of words projects authority and control, qualities perhaps suitable for national leadership.
Across the aisle, Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch has also weighed in, proposing legislation that would ban strikes by NHS doctors, placing them under the same restrictions as police officers, soldiers and prison staff.
So far, Streeting’s strategy appears to be holding. Recent polling by YouGov has shown that public support for the strikes has dipped, with 23% of those polled strongly opposed to the strikes. However, the Government’s argument that significant pay rises have already been offered appears to be resonating. But Streeting will need to show not just toughness but also empathy and partnership if he wants to avoid the pitfalls that trapped some of his predecessors.
The bigger question is whether the health portfolio itself can ever be a true springboard to Number 10. The job gives politicians profile, visibility and a reputation for dealing with national challenges that can so greatly impact our everyday life. But it also means being defined by problems that are never fully solved. Hunt showed how resilience and calm could keep a minister in post for years yet not necessarily pave the way to the premiership while Streeting is trying to chart a new course by combining firmness with delivery.
If he can steer the NHS through strikes, bring down waiting lists and keep both the public and professionals onside, he may just succeed where others have stumbled. In that sense, the doctor strikes are not just a challenge for the health service, they are also a defining moment for Wes Streeting’s political future and a stark reminder that health policy can be deeply intertwined with leadership ambitions.