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Who could make up Badenoch’s new “fightback” team? | Political news

Pabio November 3, 2024

Kemi Badenoch said the “enormous job” of holding Labor to account and preparing for a Conservative government begins immediately. So what’s next for the new leader?

His first task – and which does not always go as planned for party leaders, because some colleagues refuse what is offered to them – is to appoint his management team, his shadow cabinet.

Learn more: Kemi Badenoch wins race to become next Conservative leader

She said during the leadership campaign that she offer jobs to its five rivals. But it has already suffered its first setback, as James Cleverly declared he was joining the backbenches.

Mr Cleverly joins the Conservatives’ longest-serving former minister, Jeremy Hunt, who held four ministerial posts, including chancellor, in not taking part in the Badenoch fightback. For now at least.

Also on the back benches – alongside Rishi Sunak, of course – are Mr Sunak’s deputy prime minister, Sir Oliver Dowden, and – just minutes before the leadership result – former Brexit secretary, to health and the environment, Steve Barclay.

In the case of Sir Oliver and Mr Barclay it may have been a matter of jumping before being pushed. But we will greatly miss Mr. Hunt’s wise counsel and experience and Mr. Cleverly’s energy and campaigning savvy.

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Ms Badenoch’s top priority is to appoint a shadow chancellor. In opposition as in government, the latter must always be a close ally of the leader. Think of David Cameron and George Osborne, as well as Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.

Mel Stride, one of the leadership candidates, has been publicly auditioning for the job for months. But the new leader may want a fresher face. The ambitious Andrew Griffith, one of his main supporters, was widely anticipated.

Will Robert Jenrick take a job with his victorious rival after their bruising contest? Just last weekend, Ms. Badenoch accused him of being fired from the government after a “smell of impropriety”.

Surely the only job he would accept would be as shadow home secretary, where he could continue his radical immigration agenda. But she might also want a fresher face. Victoria Atkins, a former criminal lawyer, perhaps?

One job that might please Mr Jenrick is shadowing Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on housing, the job Ms Badenoch asked of Mr Sunak after the election, when Michael Gove resigned as an MP.

But if she doesn’t want Mr Jenrick in her shadow cabinet, she could humiliate him by offering him a modest position in the shadow cabinet, which she knows he would refuse. But on the other hand, she might want to avoid Mr. Jenrick shooting from the back seats.

Given his suggestion to name his rivals, Tom Tugendhat looks set to play a key role. Given his military, security and foreign affairs experience, he could perhaps be shadow home secretary or even shadow foreign secretary.

And Ms Badenoch’s promise to offer all her rivals a role in the shadow cabinet points to a return of Priti Patel, a former minister popular on the right of the party.

Richard Fuller’s tenure as interim party chairman will surely prove to have been just that: an interim. The party president will occupy a key post as the new leader attempts to fight back, starting with local elections next May, and launches an overhaul of the party’s much-criticised headquarters.

Stuart Andrew, however, who has been a popular alternate chief whip, may well retain his post, unless Ms Badenoch wants to reward one of her close friends. After all, that’s what party leaders often do.

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Then, after setting out her agenda in a television interview on Sunday morning, Ms Badenoch’s Commons debut will almost certainly take place during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Sir Keir Starmer, beware!

She will obviously want to make an immediate impact with a powerful performance. First impressions and all that. And let’s face it, the controversial and unpopular measures in Rachel Reeves’ budget set several open goals.

Mr Sunak, in his Commons swan song, showed how to achieve this with his combative and widely praised attack on the Budget immediately after the Chancellor’s session on Wednesday afternoon.

And in her brief remarks after her victory, she spoke of involving not just MPs, but also Holyrood MPs, members of the Welsh Senedd, “our friends in Northern Ireland” and Conservative councilors and members of the gone into the work to come.

This suggests that she will waste no time hitting the road – and trains and planes, no doubt – and embarking on meeting tours across countries and regions to rally the troops and rally them to the conservative response. .

It is a response that begins now. She also spoke about the party for the next five, ten or twenty years. David Cameron, the last Conservative leader elected in opposition, waited five years before becoming Prime Minister.

The road to a Conservative victory in the next election will therefore be long. And given Ms Badenoch’s reputation – “I’m a very direct person… I’m not a wallflower,” she told Sky News this week – the road ahead will be rocky.