Kemi Badenoch reveals shadow cabinet as Tugendhat ‘snubs shadow cabinet role’ – liv
New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has unveiled her shadow cabinet, with senior roles for Priti Patel, Chris Philp and leadership rival Robert Jenrick.
After a combative leadership contest, Mr Jenrick – a staunch advocate of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights – was handed the justice brief, while Mr Philp was appointed shadow home secretary, Ms Patel given foreign affairs, and Mel Stride made shadow chancellor.
While ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat was among senior Tories notably absent from the new shadow cabinet, sources insisted he had turned down a role, rather than been snubbed.
As the shadow cabinet met for the first time at 10am, Sir Keir Starmer was also facing a backlash over plans to raise university tuition fees for the first time in eight years.
The plans – which will see maintenance loans also rise by 3.1 per cent – were welcomed by Universities UK as “the right thing to do”.
But the University and College Union, labelled them “economically and morally wrong”, warning: “Taking more money from debt-ridden students and handing it to overpaid underperforming vice-chancellors is ill conceived.”
Key Points
Farmers warn 75% of British food production will be hit by Reeves’s tax raid
Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax raid will hit three quarters of food produced by British farmers, industry chiefs have warned, as the government battles a growing backlash over its extension of death tax.
Under plans announced in the Budget, inheritance tax will be charged at 20 per cent on farms worth more than £1m, although the chancellor has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3m.
The move has triggered backlash from farming and rural communities and led to a dispute over the number of businesses that would be affected.
While the government has insisted that only a minority of farmers will be impacted, Tom Bradshaw, chief executive of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), said around “75 per cent of the total farmed area” would be subject to the extended death tax.
Farage claims Reform has enjoyed membership boost since Badenoch crowned Tory leader
Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK has seen a boost in membership since Kemi Badenoch was picked as Conservative Party leader.
He told LBC: “Seeing it already. Seeing it already. We’ve gone through 95,000 members this morning. So we’ve gone up 1,500 in the last three or four days.
“And these are Conservatives who are hanging on to see whether the party could change direction. For us as a party, it’s very good news.”
Speaking from a Donald Trump rally in the US, he said of Ms Badenoch: “There’s going to be no change whatsoever. She is a continuity candidate with all the influences of Michael Gove and all the gang in 10 Downing Street, and somehow she thinks, miraculously, she can bring them together.
“There are two parties within the Conservative Party. You’ve got the Reform-minded people and the Liberal Democrat-minded people, and they are so far apart, it’s not true.”
Chris Philp’s history of gaffes as Tory MP appointed shadow home secretary
They say God loves a trier and Chris Philp, the former minister for policing, is one Tory who can never be accused of failing to put in a shift, frequently appearing in the media to dutifully defend the latest party line on the issue of the day.
The reward for his unwavering loyalty may now have arrived, as he takes a leadership role in Kemi Badenoch’s new cabinet, after being appointed as shadow home secretary.
While the MP for Croydon South is not afraid to get his hands dirty, evidenced by his loyal defences of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in the darkest hours of their respective premierships, some critics have suggested he does not share the communication skills and political nous displayed by some of his front bench colleagues.
Tom Tugendhat’s absence in shadow cabinet ‘not a snub’, Tory source says
One notable absence from Kemi Badenoch new shadow cabinet is leadership rival Tom Tugendhat, who previously held the esteemed chairmanship of the Commons foreign affairs committee and served as security minister under Rishi Sunak.
However, Jessica Elgot of The Guardian reports a Conservative source as suggesting that Mr Tugendhat was in fact offered a role but turned it down, joining other senior Tories such as Andrew Mitchell and James Cleverly on the backbenches.
Lib Dems warn ‘shadow cabinet of contradictions a recipe for Tory chaos’
Kemi Badenoch’s new shadow “cabinet of contradictions is a recipe for yet more Conservative chaos”, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.
“How can they claim to be able to hold this new government to account when they have just as many disagreements with each other?” said Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney MP.
“From a shadow justice secretary who wants to leave the ECHR to a shadow foreign secretary who had to resign for holding undisclosed meetings, this shadow cabinet has more than a ‘whiff of impropriety’.
“The Conservative Party voted for the economic vandalism caused by Liz Truss’s mini Budget and shattered the NHS. Every major challenge that this country faces the Conservative Party is responsible for.
“The Liberal Democrats are the only Party that can provide the decent opposition that this country needs.”
Badenoch vows she will ‘win back trust of the public’
Kemi Badenoch has insisted she will “win back the trust of the public”, as she announced her shadow cabinet.
The new Tory 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.”
New Tory co-chair says he must rebuild party’s record low membership
The Conservative Party’s new co-chair has said he needs to build the party’s membership, which has significantly declined.
Nigel Huddleston was asked about Reform UK reporting it has 95,000 members, while the Tory leadership election results on Saturday showed the party had 131,680 Tory members eligible to vote – a record low.
He told LBC: “One of my roles is to grow the membership base, and I understand why people have joined Reform, but I say if you want change in Britain, you need to join the Conservative Party, because we will be the ones who hopefully will form the next government.”
He added: “I think when we we’re able to articulate our policy platform, it resonates with large numbers of people across the country, including millions of people who maybe voted Reform at the last election, we need to make sure that they can come back to the Conservatives, and we want to be clear that they have a home here because we share their values.”
New Tory shadow cabinet revealed in full
Here is the full list of appointees:
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
Kemi Badenoch unveils new Tory shadow cabinet
Kemi Badenoch has unveiled her shadow cabinet, with senior roles for leadership rival Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Chris Philp.
After a combative leadership contest, Mr Jenrick – a staunch advocate of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights – was handed the justice brief, while Mr Philp was appointed shadow home secretary, Ms Patel given foreign affairs, and Mel Stride made shadow chancellor.
As announced yesterday, Laura Trott is now shadow education secretary, while Helen Whately will take work and pensions, and Ed Argar was given health.
Andy Gregory5 November 2024 09:27
1730798826
Ministers have been ‘working hard’ to ensure UK-US ties remain strong regardless of election outcome
Health secretary Wes Streeting has said the government has been working hard to ensure that, whoever wins the presidential election, “the deep ties that bind our two nations are as strong as they have ever been”.
While he admitted that the Labour government “may not be ideological bedfellows with President Trump”, the government will “work with whoever” the American people choose.
“I think that is particularly important in a world in which we see war on the continent of Europe, in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, wider geopolitical risks and threats where the US and the UK have common history, but also common cause in terms of the future we want to build, in the future of democracy.
“The American people will decide who their president is and we will work with whoever they choose”, he told LBC.
Millie Cooke, Political Correspondent5 November 2024 09:27
