🔗 Share this article Energy Secretary Ed Miliband Encourages Labour to Focus Forward After Keir Starmer Offers Apology to Streeting for Negative Backgrounding Senior Labour Party figure Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has called for the party to move beyond party tensions after PM Sir Keir Starmer directly apologised to health minister Wes Streeting MP over negative media stories originating from the Prime Minister's office. Major Events Miliband declares Starmer will sack the Downing Street source behind for targeting Streeting if identified The Energy Secretary rules out future leadership ambitions, declaring his previous experience as leader was the "strongest inoculation" against desiring the position again UK economy expanded by just 0.1% in the third quarter, hit by the JLR hack Context The internal turmoil started after reports surfaced about hostile background comments from the Prime Minister's team targeting Streeting. Despite early attempts to downplay the incident, the talk between Starmer and the health minister apparently took a more serious turn. The Prime Minister expressed regret to Streeting, the media have been told. The conversation was brief, and they did not address Morgan McSweeney, whom the PM is now under growing pressure to remove. Miliband's Statement In his morning media appearances, Miliband emphasized the need for the Labour Party to focus on national issues rather than internal divisions. Look, I think the backgrounding has been bad, without doubt. But my message to the party today is quite simple, which is we need to prioritize the country, not our internal matters. We were given a historic victory last July, a major opportunity to change our country. And we have a serious duty. Economic Update Meanwhile, official data showed the British economic performance expanded by just 0.1 percent in the third quarter, with the industrial industry especially hit by the recently reported JLR security incident. The Day's Agenda Morning: NHS England releases its monthly data Morning: Wes Streeting is visiting the Liverpool area Today: The Chancellor makes comments to the press Late morning: Number 10 conducts its regular lobby briefing Morning: The Prime Minister promotes plans for the UK's first small modular reactor project at Wylfa site on the island of Anglesey