Mel Stride and Priti Patel given top shadow cabinet jobs
Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel have been appointed as shadow Chancellor and shadow foreign secretary as new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch assembles her front-bench team.
Both Stride and Patel ran against now-Conservative leader Badenoch in the race to replace Rishi Sunak following the July 4 election.
Their appointments are the first to shadow the so-called ‘great offices of state’, the foreign secretary, Chancellor and home secretary cabinet positions that she has appointed.
Leadership finalist Robert Jenrick has been appointed shadow justice secretary, it is understood.
It came after Badenoch earlier named Laura Trott her shadow education secretary, while making Neil O’Brien a shadow education minister, ahead of departmental questions in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon, which saw education secretary Bridget Phillipson confirm university tuition fees are set to rise to £9,535 a year in England.
While on Sunday, Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris was made the Tory party’s new chief whip, and Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson were appointed joint chairmen.
Badenoch is expected to name her full shadow cabinet team ahead of their first meeting on Tuesday, in advance of her first appearance against Keir Starmer at Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs).
According to the PA news agency, Stride and Patel were appointed to their roles in an effort to unite various factions of the Conservative Party following the long leadership contest.
The leader of the opposition had insisted she would offer all her rival candidates a role in her shadow cabinet, but former home secretary James Cleverly ruled himself out from a job.
Andrew Griffith, a former Treasury minister, was tipped for the role of shadow chancellor before Stride’s appointment was announced, with other potential names including former energy security secretary Claire Coutinho and interim shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez.
Speaking at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) this morning, it was reported Badenoch said the party’s first challenge was to win 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.