Kemi Badenoch’s appoints new shadow cabinet: who’s in and who’s out

Kemi Badenoch has overhauled her shadow cabinet with a series of new appointments.

The Conservative leader reshuffled her top team after James Cleverly, the former housing secretary, stood down from the party’s frontbench in order to announce his campaign to stand as mayor of London. 

Among the casualties of Badenoch’s reshuffle were Mel Stride, the former shadow chancellor, and Priti Patel, who previously served as shadow foreign secretary. Both Stride and Patel stood as candidates in the 2024 Conservative leadership contest. 

Patel was replaced as shadow foreign secretary by Tom Tugendhat, who also stood as a Tory leadership candidate in 2024. Tugendhat served as chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee from 2017 to 2022. 

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Stride was succeeded by Andrew Griffith as shadow chancellor. Griffith, who served as shadow business and trade secretary from 2024 to 2026, was also financial secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022 during Liz Truss’ brief tenure as prime minister. He went on to hold a series of ministerial positions under Rishi Sunak. Previously a close ally of Boris Johnson, he served as the former prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary (PPS) from September 2021 to February 2022.

During the 2019 Conservative leadership contest, Johnson used Griffith’s £9.5 million townhouse as his campaign headquarters. Griffith, then one of the most senior executives at broadcaster Sky, was later appointed as Johnson’s chief business adviser, based at 10 Downing Street. He took on that role in July 2019.

Griffith supported Badenoch’s candidacy in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election.

Meanwhile, Chris Philp was retained as shadow home secretary. Harriet Cross, who was first elected to parliament in 2024, joined the shadow cabinet as shadow secretary of state for Scotland. 

Katie Lam, a darling of the Conservative right and another of the party’s 2024 intake, was appointed as shadow housing secretary, replacing Cleverly. She will shadow Angela Rayner. 

Stuart Andrew, the former shadow health secretary, and Nigel Huddleston, the former shadow culture secretary, have returned to the backbenches. 

Kemi Badenoch is said to be grateful to Andrew, Huddleston, Cleverly, Patel and Stride for having helped “steady the ship and rebuild credibility after the devastating 2024 election.”

Read the full list of confirmed appointments below. 

• Kemi Badenoch – leader of the Conservative Party
• Alex Burghart – shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland
• Andrew Griffith – shadow chancellor of the exchequer
• Claire Coutinho – shadow secretary of state for business, innovation, science and trade (Julia Lopez covering during maternity leave)
• Richard Fuller – shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
• Tom Tugendhat – shadow secretary of state for foreign, commonwealth and development affairs
• Chris Philp – shadow secretary of state for the Home Department
• James Cartlidge – shadow secretary of state for defence
• Neil O’Brien – shadow minister for policy renewal
• Kevin Hollinrake – chairman of the Conservative Party
• Helen Whately – shadow secretary of state for work and pensions
• Andrew Bowie – shadow secretary of state for energy security
• Laura Trott – shadow secretary of state for education
• Nick Timothy – shadow secretary of state for justice
• Damian Hinds – shadow secretary of state for health and social care
• Victoria Atkins – shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs
• Richard Holden – shadow secretary of state for transport
• Katie Lam – shadow secretary of state for housing, communities and local government
• Rebecca Paul – shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport
• Harriet Cross – shadow secretary of state for Scotland
• Mims Davies – shadow secretary of state for Wales
• Joy Morrissey – shadow secretary of state for women & equalities
• Jesse Norman – shadow leader of the House of Commons
• Lord True – shadow leader of the House of Lords
• Rebecca Harris – opposition chief whip
• John Glen – parliamentary private secretary to the leader