Shadow Cabinet League Table: Badenoch tightens her grip on the Tory party

“I like the team that I’ve got,” Kemi Badenoch told The Sunday Times before the local elections. “I put them there for a reason.”

And in the latest ConservativeHome survey, it seems party members are broadly content with the line-up she has assembled. Nobody in the shadow cabinet falls into negative territory and only shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew, at +9.4, remains in single figures.

At the top, meanwhile, Badenoch continues to pull away from the field. The Tory leader posts a net satisfaction rating of +84.9 – her strongest showing yet – and maintains a substantial lead over Nick Timothy, who holds second place since he joined the shadow cabinet, on +61.8. Behind him comes Claire Coutinho on +59.6, consolidating her reputation as one of the party’s more effective media performers in opposition.

There is then a fairly tight cluster of senior figures. Mel Stride and Chris Philp both remain comfortably above +50, while Laura Trott, Kevin Hollinrake and James Cleverly continue to poll solidly with members. Figures such as Andrew Griffith and Helen Whately remain in strong territory, if without quite breaking into the party’s top tier.

The more striking feature of the table, though, may be how compressed it is. Even some of the party’s more divisive or battle-scarred names – including Priti Patel on +15.7 – remain comfortably above water with the membership. There are no dramatic collapses and few obvious liabilities, although the bottom five remain the same names (if in a different order). For Badenoch, that may reinforce the argument for caution rather than upheaval.

Despite her public insistence that she is content with the current team, there remains persistent speculation in Westminster about a future reshuffle and I understand that Badenoch has still been mulling a change in her ranks. But now the government is tearing each other to shreds, don’t expect it any time soon.

A LOTO source told me: “She does want to change things around but it only makes sense to wait to see what a future Labour government looks like and then move people accordingly.

“She only really wants to do one before the general election so you’ve got to make it count.”

That calculation has fed into a wider argument within Conservative circles over whether Badenoch should start promoting newer MPs faces and creates some distance from the old Tory brand, as senior figures of previous governments like Priti Patel and Mel Stride still retain senior positions despite the electorate’s appetite for renewal.

Our guest columnist today, former No10 head of comms Lee Cain makes that very point. “A reshuffle is long overdue, and new talent needs to be put in front of the country in the shadow great offices of state roles, people who are hungry and have something to prove and who give voters a concrete reason to believe the party has actually changed rather than simply rebranded,” he writes.

Another LOTO source tells me that there is an increased understanding Patel would be okay with taking a step back from the shadow cabinet and perhaps expect a peerage. Beyond that, there are some concerns about sending more senior members to the backbenches or into a demotion – and questions over whether they would then be prepared to do the actual parliamentary work of opposition that is needed.

But those in the new intake, with its many rising stars, might not want to get their hopes up too quickly. The same LOTO source who said Badenoch only wants to rearrange her shadow cabinet once more before another general election told me that it feels too soon for the 2024 intake to be promoted into the top rung. There is reluctance to thrust inexperienced MPs into major briefs before proper time is allowed to establish themselves at Westminster. But there is only one way to gain more experience.

There is growing pressure for fresher faces from the 2019 and 2024 intake to be given a higher profile – if not immediately in the shadow cabinet, then at least across the broadcast round to communicate a new message, with fresh faces, to the public. “That is more important for votes than most despatch box moments. On local election day Jesse Norman was doing our morning round – ridiculous,” one Tory source said.

For now, though, Badenoch’s immediate political problem is not internal dissent but managing the wider party’s success. Her own ratings remain significantly stronger than those of the Conservative brand, and this latest table suggests members continue to see her as the party’s clearest electoral asset.

The post Shadow Cabinet League Table: Badenoch tightens her grip on the Tory party appeared first on Conservative Home.

Source link