Kemi Badenoch names appointments to new shadow cabinet
The Conservative party has sent out the list of appointments to Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. Here it is, as set out in the press release from CCHQ.
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Mel Stride MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs: Dame Priti Patel MP
Shadow Home Secretary: Chris Philp MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: Alex Burghart MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: James Cartlidge MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice: Robert Jenrick MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education: Laura Trott MP
Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary: Ed Argar MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Kevin Hollinrake MP
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Victoria Atkins MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade: Andrew Griffith MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and Shadow Minister for Equalities: Claire Coutinho MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Helen Whately MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport: Gareth Bacon MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport: Stuart Andrew MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology: Alan Mak MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Shadow Minister of State for Energy and Net Zero: Andrew Bowie MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Shadow Minister for Women: Mims Davies MP
Opposition Chief Whip (Commons): Dame Rebecca Harris MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons: Jesse Norman MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords: Lord True
Co-Chairmen of the Party: Nigel Huddleston MP & Lord Johnson
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Richard Fuller MP
Also attending
Parliamentary Private Secretary: Julia Lopez MP
Key events
Badenoch says new shadow cabinet draws on ‘talents of people from across party’, based on meritocracy and experience
In a statement commenting on her shadow cabinet appointments, Kemi Badenoch, the new Conservative leader, said:
I am delighted to have appointed my shadow cabinet, which draws on the talents of people from across the Conservative party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective, just as I promised during the campaign.
Our party’s problems will only be solved with a team effort, and I am confident my shadow cabinet ministers will deliver effective opposition as we seek to win back the trust of the public.
We will now get to work holding Labour to account and rebuilding our party based on Conservative principles and values.
The process of renewing our great party has now begun.
Badenoch is entitled to say that her shadow cabinet appointments include people from all wings of the party. She has avoided the mistake made by, for example, Iain Duncan Smith (see here) and Liz Truss (see here) who, like Badenoch, were both rightwingers elected leader by the members despite having the support of only around a third of the parliamentary party. Both of them stuffed their teams with supporters, and sidelined their opponents. And, for both of them, this was a problem when they hit a difficult period, because they had less support in the parliamentary party than they might otherwise have done.
Graham Brady, who has chairman of the 1922 Committee in the last parliament, describes this quite well in Kingmaker, his revealing and very readable memoir. Referring to Truss’s cabinet, he says:
The thing that was very clear to me was that the One Nation side of the party, having been almost completely excluded from ministerial office under the new administration, felt no obligation whatsoever to defend the Truss government – it wasn’t theirs.
But Badenoch has also been helped by the fact that, despite being a very rightwing leadership candidate, when it came down to the final two she ended up being the preferred choice for many One Nation or more liberal Tories (like George Osborne and Ken Clarke) because they found Robert Jenrick’s commitment to leaving the European convention on human rights intolerable.
Further frontbench appointments will be made “on a rolling basis” this week, the Tories are saying.
That means they won’t all come at once, and it may take a while.
That’s not unusual. Keir Starmer announced his government appointments over the course of several days. The final two whip appointments came on 23 July, almost three weeks after polling day, and Starmer did not appoint an advocate general for Scotland until the end of August.
Kemi Badenoch names appointments to new shadow cabinet
The Conservative party has sent out the list of appointments to Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. Here it is, as set out in the press release from CCHQ.
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Mel Stride MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs: Dame Priti Patel MP
Shadow Home Secretary: Chris Philp MP
Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: Alex Burghart MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: James Cartlidge MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice: Robert Jenrick MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Education: Laura Trott MP
Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary: Ed Argar MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Kevin Hollinrake MP
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Victoria Atkins MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade: Andrew Griffith MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and Shadow Minister for Equalities: Claire Coutinho MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Helen Whately MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport: Gareth Bacon MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport: Stuart Andrew MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology: Alan Mak MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Shadow Minister of State for Energy and Net Zero: Andrew Bowie MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Shadow Minister for Women: Mims Davies MP
Opposition Chief Whip (Commons): Dame Rebecca Harris MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons: Jesse Norman MP
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords: Lord True
Co-Chairmen of the Party: Nigel Huddleston MP & Lord Johnson
Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Richard Fuller MP
Also attending
Parliamentary Private Secretary: Julia Lopez MP
John Lamont posted this on social media last night saying he is no longer shadow Scottish secretary.
Tory frontbenchers may need to shadow two jobs at same time because of MP shortage, says new party co-chair
Good morning. Kemi Badenoch is chairing her first meeting of the shadow cabinet as leader this morning. We had been expecting to find out who will actually be turning up at some point yesterday, but the full list of shadow cabinet appointments has not been published yet (operating for the convenience of the media has never been a Badenoch priority – fair enough) and the list is due soon.
This is what we knew by the end of play yesterday.
Steven Swinford from the Times claims Badenoch was angry about his revelation yesterday that Robert Jenrick will be the new shadow justice secretary.
Kemi Badenoch was left infuriated after The Times disclosed that she had appointed Robert Jenrick as her shadow justice secretary yesterday
Badenoch had wanted to announce Jenrick’s appointment today so the appointments of Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary and Mel Stride as shadow chancellor would take the headlines
Nigel Huddleston, the new Conservative co-chair, has been giving interviews this morning, and he told Sky News that the opposition would be able to shadow the government, even though there are more Labour ministers and whips than there are Conservative MPs. Asked if this would be a problem, Huddleston said the party would manage, but that frontbenchers might have to shadow more than one government post at the same time.
We will cover it because we’ve got immense talent in the Conservative party … When I was in government, a couple of times I was both a whip and a minister, and that happens. So, actually, you don’t need quite the number that you might imagine. And we’ve got some very competent people who can often do two jobs.
Huddleston also said that he did not know who all the members of the new shadow cabinet would be.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Kemi Badenoch is due to publish the names of people sitting in her new shadow cabinet.
9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
10am: Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, and two of his colleagues give evidence to the Commons Treasury committee about the budget. At 2pm Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and Mike Brewer, interim chief executive at the Resolution Foundation, are giving evidence.
10am: Kemi Badenoch chairs a meeting of her new shadow cabinet.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
11.30am: Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, takes questions in the Commons. Robert Jenrick will be responding for the Tories in his new role as shadow justice secretary.
2.30pm: Sir Alan Bates, founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, gives evidence to the Commons business committee about the redress system for people affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Also, the government’s tobacco and vapes bill is being published today.
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