Kemi Badenoch appoints leadership rivals into senior Shadow Cabinet roles

Kemi Badenoch has made leadership rivals Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel as shadow chancellor and shadow foreign secretary, The Yorkshire Post understands.

The new Conservative leader started making her frontbench appointments yesterday, ahead of her first shadow cabinet meeting today.

Former Treasury minister Andrew Griffiths has been tipped to become shadow chancellor, but Ms Badenoch is set to hand the role to the former work and pensions secretary Mr Stride.

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Dame Priti, the former home secretary, is also expected to be announced as shadow foreign secretary.

She was forced to resign as international development secretary under Theresa May’s premiership for holding a number of unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians.

Ms Badenoch has said she will appoint all of her Tory leadership rivals to her shadow cabinet as a show of unity, except James Cleverly who has said he wished to remain on the backbenches.

Newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, leaves party headquarters in Matthew Parker St, central LondonNewly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, leaves party headquarters in Matthew Parker St, central London
Newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, leaves party headquarters in Matthew Parker St, central London | PA

The first major official appointment Ms Badenoch made yesterday was naming former minister Laura Trott as her shadow education secretary.

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Ms Trott will be joined by Tory former minister Neil O’Brien as a shadow education minister.

The pair appeared on the opposition front bench yesterday for education questions as well as during the tuition fees announcement.

Ms Trott said she was “delighted to be doing this role”, and added: “We will be a constructive opposition working in the best interests of young people.”

Ms Badenoch was at the party’s headquarters in Westminster yesterday morning as she started deciding who will be in her top team.

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In an address to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) staff, it is thought Ms Badenoch said the first challenge for the party will be winning back council seats at local elections.

She is also understood to have said the party can turn their situation around in one term and that policy will come soon, but the party needs to start with principles such as freedom of speech and personal responsibility.

Laura Trott. Credit: Maja Smiejkowska/PA WireLaura Trott. Credit: Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire
Laura Trott. Credit: Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire | Maja Smiejkowska/PA Wire

It was reported on Sunday that Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris would become the party’s new chief whip while Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson have been made joint chairmen.

It is understood she told staff yesterday that Mr Huddleston and Lord Johnson have been appointed due to their broad experience in the party.

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Other figures that are thought to be in contention include former energy security secretary Claire Coutinho and interim shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez.

Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake has been covering the business and trade brief under Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

Mr Hollinrake was one of Ms Badenoch’s first public backers in the leadership contest.

No announcements have been made for the shadow environment, farming and rural affairs team, however Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore asked questions in the House of Commons on inheritance tax as the shadow farming minister.

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Mr Moore did not publicly declare who he was backing in the Tory leadership contest, saying he wanted to “push the candidates on rural policy”.

The anticipated announcement of the new shadow cabinet follows Ms Badenoch’s victory over former immigration minister Robert Jenrick on Saturday.

In her first media appearance since that victory, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that she would tell “hard truths” to the country and her party.

She drew criticism for suggesting the so-called partygate scandal that saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules had been “overblown”.

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Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Ms Badenoch following her election as Conservative Party leader.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed yesterday that the pair had spoken over the phone since Saturday’s announcement.

The spokesman said: “I can confirm that he spoke to the Leader of the Opposition to congratulate her over the weekend.”

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