Kemi Badenoch is to reshuffle her shadow cabinet on Monday, and is expected to install Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary to replace Priti Patel.
Tugendhat, a former security minister, was a leadership candidate who had previously declined to join the shadow cabinet. Badenoch is also expected to replace James Cleverly, the shadow communities secretary, who has resigned from the shadow cabinet to run for London mayor.
Patel announced on Sunday night she would be leaving as shadow foreign secretary but said she would take on an “international role” with the party to build ties with other rightwing parties across the world.
The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Tugendhat, who has been outspoken on China and Iran since returning to the backbenches, will be her replacement.
In a statement, she said she wanted to also spend more time in her Essex constituency. “I’m pleased to continue supporting Kemi and the Conservative party in a new role strengthening our relationships with fellow conservatives and centre-right parties around the world,” she said.
“At a time of profound global uncertainty, when our values and freedoms are under threat, conservatives must work more closely together.
“With Labour axing key transport schemes, cancelling plans for a new school, threatening to destroy our countryside, councils and communities and cutting policing, I will be a vocal champion for my constituents in the House of Commons defending their interests and demanding action.”
Badenoch has also sacked Stuart Andrew, the shadow health secretary, who said in a post on X he would be returning to the backbenches.
Other changes will include a replacement for the shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho, who will soon go on maternity leave with her second child. Coutinho had been widely tipped as Badenoch’s preferred candidate to eventually replace the shadow chancellor Mel Stride, who many Tories have said privately they believe is failing to make the necessary impact.
Badenoch is also expected to find a new role for Julia Lopez, who had shadowed the now abolished science, innovation and technology department. Helen Grant, the shadow solicitor general, has also asked to leave the shadow frontbench.
Cleverly, who announced his run for London mayor on Sunday, denied he had quit the shadow cabinet following a shift to the right under Badenoch’s leadership.
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“I am going to put forward a classic Conservative case to be the mayor of London, and it’s about enterprise, it’s about opportunity,” Cleverly told Times Radio.
“That is a classically Conservative vision, and it will run in parallel to and supportive of Kemi’s plans for the country as a whole.”
Cleverly, who lost the Conservative leadership race to Badenoch, is considered a more moderate voice in a party that has moved to the right as support for Nigel Farage’s rightwing Reform UK has grown.
But the appointment of Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary would bring a key voice from the party’s more centrist One Nation grouping into the fold, though Tugendhat is hawkish on foreign affairs.
