Streeting says Mi6 over Gaza concerns hit a brick wall
Wes Streeting said he felt he was “hitting up against a brick wall” when he raised Gaza concerns in government after private messages from Peter Mandelson were disclosed this week. The ex-health secretary said he was “horrified by the war in Gaza” and had pushed for action behind the scenes, including a cabinet circulation in July 2025.
Streeting said the intervention went beyond argument: his 22-page dossier showed ministers videos and notes from three doctors, including two surgeons at prominent London hospitals, describing work in Gaza under Israeli bombardment. The doctors said they had treated up to a dozen children a day, that half the casualties coming in were children, and that children were screaming in pain because no analgesics were available.
Mandelson messages to Pat McFadden
WhatsApp messages disclosed this week showed Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US, writing to Pat McFadden that he had received “a wild long hysterical message from Wes about Israel.” Mandelson said, “I pushed back. I can forward but reflects pretty badly on his maturity in my view.” He also described Streeting’s intervention as “pathetic” and added, “I think Wes is experiencing an early mid-life crisis.”
Other messages between Mandelson and McFadden widened the picture inside Labour’s top team. Mandelson described Keir Starmer’s Downing Street as “beleaguered and bereft” and said the prime minister “lacks verve, as does the cabinet as a whole.” McFadden replied, “Every meeting I have is: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’”
Streeting’s cabinet push on Gaza
Streeting said he was not the only cabinet minister pressing for action and said the government eventually recognised a Palestinian state, but “took far too long to get there.” He also said, “In government, I did everything I could behind the scenes to get the government to act with the moral urgency the conflict demands.” The dispute now sits in public view as a cabinet-level argument about how far ministers were willing to go while the war in Gaza continued.
Streeting’s own position has sharpened the line inside government: he said, “I’ve always supported Israel’s right to defend itself and Palestinians’ right to a state of their own.” A decade ago, he visited the West Bank, and he said he had previously called for sanctions on Israeli settlements when he was a backbencher. The disclosed messages, and the 22-page dossier that accompanied his push, show that Gaza was being argued not only in public but inside ministerial channels.
Downing Street and Gaza
The immediate consequence is political pressure on the government’s handling of Gaza and on the tone of private ministerial communications. Streeting’s account shows a minister trying to press for action through formal government routes, while Mandelson’s messages to McFadden depict that effort as poorly judged and Downing Street as depleted. Nick Thomas-Symonds spoke to the media on Tuesday morning, adding another sign that the disclosures have already reached the centre of government.
The next confirmed development is the continued scrutiny of the disclosed messages and the July 2025 cabinet circulation as ministers answer for how Gaza was discussed inside government. For readers watching the fallout, the operative fact is that the dispute is no longer private: Streeting has put his own account on the record, and Mandelson’s messages have made the internal divide visible.
