The shadow cabinet will embrace “all the talents” of the Conservatives, the party’s newly appointed co-chair has said.
Nigel Huddleston, who was appointed to the role on Monday morning, said Kemi Badenoch will ensure her top team reflects will “breadth” of the Conservative Party.
Badenoch was declared the new Tory leader 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).
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The Conservative leader has since begun to select her shadow cabinet, after senior Tories James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Steve Barclay and Rishi Sunak all ruled themselves out for roles.
During the leadership race, Badenoch pledged to appoint all five of her rivals to the Conservative shadow cabinet, including Jenrick, Cleverly (ruled out), Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel.
Commenting on the new Conservative leader’s appointments, Huddleston told GB News: “She [Kemi Badenoch] wants to make sure that this is a shadow cabinet and a shadow team that reflects the breadth of the party and embraces all the talents.
“Reshuffles and appointments is always a somewhat difficult process.
“But I have sensed a strong sense of good will for support and you have seen many, many colleagues of mine who supported other candidates come out and say ‘look, we are now backing Kemi, she is the leader, we want to support her’ and I think that is the overall tone you will see today.”
Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet: Robert Jenrick appointed justice spokesperson
So far, Badenoch’s frontbench appointees are as follows:
- Shadow chancellor – Mel Stride
- Shadow foreign secretary – Priti Patel
- Shadow justice secretary – Robert Jenrick
- Shadow education secretary – Laura Trott
- Conservative Party co-chairs – Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson.
- Chief whip – Dame Rebecca Harris.
But Huddleston appeared to cast doubt on whether Robert Jenrick has been appointed as shadow justice secretary, despite reporting to that effect on Monday afternoon.
The Conservative co-chair suggested reports of Jenrick’s appointment “might be jumping the gun”.
He told GB News: “Well I’m afraid you might be jumping the gun because not all of these appointments have been announced yet. There’s been media speculation. I’ve only seen the media speculation on this rather than the firm appointments.”
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