A Labour MP has publicly condemned Wes Streeting’s call to rejoin the EU’s customs union, blasting it as “opportunistic” leadership manoeuvring. Mr Streeting made headlines this morning as he used a weekend interview to break ranks with the Prime Minister and call for a partial reversing of Brexit.

The top Cabinet Minister, who is widely believed to be plotting a leadership campaign against Sir Keir Starmer, said Britain must re-tie itself to the EU’s economy. He told the Guardian: “The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU.” However his comments have been slammed by fellow Labour MP Graham Stringer, who labelled it an “early shot” in a potential leadership election.

Mr Stringer told Times Radio: “It’s just Wes being opportunistic, knowing that - I think - it’s nearly 30% of the Labour Party membership is in London and most of those people seem to be in favour of rejoining the EU.

“So it's an early shot in what might be a leadership election after the May local elections."

The Blackley and Middleton South MP said he disagreed with Mr Streeting’s customs union demand, saying it would strip Britain’s ability to negotiate its own trade deals with countries like Australia and India.

He also warned that the policy would further lose historic Labour supporters in the north who overwhelmingly backed Brexit.

Mr Stringer warned: “We lost a lot of Labour voters during the 2019 election and the 2017 election by Labour voters who a significant percentage of them, I think it was nearly 30-35 percent of them, decided to vote Reform or Conservative because they wanted to leave the EU.”

He also said it would be “absolutely” undemocratic to take Britain back into the customs union without a fresh referendum.

Last night Downing Street sources accused Mr Streeting of using the interview for “setting out his stall” for a potential leadership tilt.

However they also said the blatant disloyalty to the Prime Minister, who has ruled out rejoining the customs union, proved how weak he now is.

The source told The Times: “It is not even subtle… Wes is setting out his stall for the leadership and there is nothing No 10 can do about it.”

Asked if he wanted to be Prime Minister, Mr Streeting told the Guardian: “The closer I see that job and the pressure on Keir and the demands of that job, the more I wonder why anyone would want it.”

He argued that Labour cannot ‘out-Reform Reform’, and should focus on winning back middle class metropolitan voters turning to the Green Party and other rival leftist groups.