Appearing on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Streeting also addressed the circumstances around his departure from the government.
Streeting said when he met Sir Keir in Downing Street the day before he resigned from the cabinet, he told the prime minister directly he would be challenging him for the Labour leadership.
“As I said to the prime minister in my letter and privately, this is a government that lacks definition and also direction and vision,” Streeting said. “When people don’t know who you are, and what you stand for, they don’t vote for you.”
Streeting would need the support of 81 Labour MPs to trigger a leadership contest under the party’s rules.
He said he had decided against that a few days before he resigned, after he had learned Greater Manchester Mayor and potential Labour leadership rival Andy Burnham had “found a seat”.
Josh Simons announced he was standing down as the MP for Makerfield on Thursday last week, paving the way for Burnham to stand as Labour’s candidate in the forthcoming by-election.
Streeting said: “It was clear that if we’d been plunged straight into a leadership contest by me or for that matter anyone else, I think it would have been seen as a deliberate attempt to get ahead of Andy Burnham’s potential return.”
Streeting was also asked about his position on Brexit, which was a focal point of a speech he gave last weekend.
In the speech, he said leaving the European Union following the 2016 referendum had been a “catastrophic mistake” and the UK should “one day” rejoin the bloc.
But Streeting told the BBC “in order to rejoin, there’s something fundamental that would have to be true, which is, it would have to be the settled will of the country”.
The interview came after Streeting warned the Labour government was losing the fight against “nationalism”, in his resignation speech to MPs.
You can listen to the full interview on the Political Thinking podcast, which is available on BBC Sounds.
