John Healey and Wes StreetingThe defence secretary boldly rejected his colleague Wes Streeting’s claim that there “is a deep disillusionment in this country at the moment”.The health secretary caused a stir when he told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips last week: “There is a deep disillusionment in this country at the moment and, I’d say, growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country around.”Streeting said while he is an optimist, “there is also so much more to do”.His remarks came after Labour’s humiliating by-election defeat in Caerphilly, which the senior minister compared to the lowest point of Starmer’s time as a party leader.He compared the terrible result in Labour’s former stronghold to a similar seismic loss in Hartlepool in 2021, when Starmer considered resigning as Labour leader.