Wes Streeting has warned that taxes are too high, as he said he was “diplomatically ducking” the question of replacing Sir Keir Starmer.
The health secretary, one of the frontrunners to be the next Labour leader, also said the “best way” to get more growth in the faltering UK economy was a deeper trading relationship with the EU.
But he insisted Sir Keir had his “absolute support” as he said an extraordinary row over briefings against him from inside No 10 was now “water under the bridge”.
Mr Streeting also warned the UK had taken a “massive economic hit” with Brexit.
He said the PM’s “reset” with the EU was a “good start” but that both the country and the government “want a closer trading relationship with Europe”, although he ruled out a return to freedom of movement.
With Labour trailing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the polls, Mr Streeting is seen as a key contender, alongside the home secretary Shabana Mahmood and former deputy PM Angela Rayner, to succeed Sir Keir.
On Sunday, Labour chair Anna Turley was forced to say “of course, absolutely” when asked if Sir Keir would still be PM next Christmas.
Last week, former PM Sir Tony Blair appeared to effectively endorse Ms Mahmood as a future Labour leader, praising her as “brilliant” and “impressive” in a joint public appearance.
November’s Budget saw taxes increased by £26bn, while the official Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said none of the measures announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, would have a “material effect” on growth.
In an interview with The Observer, Mr Streeting said he was “really uncomfortable with the level of taxation in this country.
“We’re asking a lot of individual taxpayers, we’re asking a lot of businesses. We’ve got a level of indebtedness that we need to take very seriously. The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU,” he said.
He added that the NHS is “coping” during the resident doctors’ strike, but admitted he was concerned about the coming days.
Resident doctors will return to work at 7am on Monday, having gone on strike on Wednesday after members of the British Medical Association (BMA) rejected a fresh offer from the government.
“I think the NHS is coping … The period that worries me more is the post-strike period, when we have to try and recover the service. That now falls at a time of year which is the NHS’s busiest,” Mr Streeting said.
On Friday, he said he wanted to end the dispute and that “we will get around the table with them again in the new year”, but insisted he has a responsibility to all NHS staff.
“I don’t think that doctors are selfish and don’t care about nurses and other healthcare professionals, but the BMA’s position can be quite hardline and uncompromising,” he said.
He laughed off suggestions that he had discussed a deal with Ms Rayner about a leadership challenge.
“I’ve been reading some of the stuff recently and thinking this just bears no resemblance to reality,” he said.
“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 did not rule himself out of becoming leader, however.
“I’m diplomatically ducking the question to avoid any more of the silly soap opera we’ve had in the last few months,” he said.
And asked if he thought the UK would vote for a gay prime minister, he added: “One of the things I’m proud of about this country is that we have an atheist prime minister with a Jewish wife who succeeded our first Hindu prime minister who succeeded a number of women. I think this country is an inclusive, welcoming, decent and kind country.”
The interview comes just a week after Mr Streeting voiced his frustration with the Labour leadership’s “practical, technocratic approach”.
He also warned that the government risked presenting itself as just the “maintenance department for the country” and was failing to communicate its achievements, in a chat with The New Statesman.