Kemi Badenoch has appointed her shadow cabinet, ahead of the first meeting of the new Conservative top team on Tuesday morning.
It comes after the former business secretary was declared the new party chief on Saturday in the closest Conservative leadership contest in history. Badenoch beat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in a ballot of Tory members — winning by about 10,000 votes.
Badenoch won 53,806 votes (56.6 per cent) to Jenrick’s 41,318 (43.5 per cent).
During the leadership race, Badenoch pledged to appoint all five of her rivals to the Conservative shadow cabinet, including Jenrick, James Cleverly (ruled out), Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel.
Badenoch’s frontbench appointees are as follows:
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- 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
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
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