Kemi Badenoch has kicked off the return to parliament with a reshuffle of her top team in order to take on Andy Burnham and Reform UK. She has made sweeping changes to the shadow cabinet and ruthlessly axed her shadow chancellor. Here is a run-down of the new characters sitting across from Labour on the opposition frontbench.
Andrew Griffith
Griffith, the MP for Arundel and South Downs, replaces Mel Stride as shadow chancellor, a role he has reportedly long coveted. He is loyal to Badenoch and was one of her first backers for leader in ۲۰۲۴.
Previously the chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Sky and the chair of Just Eat, he entered parliament as an ally of Boris Johnson after allowing the former prime minister to use his £۹.۵m townhouse as his leadership campaign HQ in ۲۰۱۹. He later became Johnson’s business adviser in government before running for election later that year.
Griffith was a backer of Liz Truss for leader and as her treasury minister was partially responsible for the disastrous mini-budget which caused economic chaos. He continued to defend the budget and said the market turmoil was linked to global events.
He was spotted last year at the launch of a climate denial group with Truss and Nigel Farage. Of his attendance, he said: “In any year, I attend hundreds of external events with business organisations and thinktanks, none of which automatically imply my endorsement.” He also recently spoke at a hard-right Cpac event organised by Truss.
Claire Coutinho
Widely tipped as one of the party’s rising stars, Coutinho made a fierce opponent to Ed Miliband when he was energy secretary and she shadowed his brief. A cabinet minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, she has been shifted to Badenoch’s economic unit and made shadow business secretary. Before parliament she was an investment banker at Merrill Lynch and KPMG, and has recently been holding the Labour government’s feet to the fire over rising energy bills.
Colleagues describe her as forensic, she delights in doing her own research about what she terms “the hidden cost of net zero” and has spoken up in parliament for whistleblowers at the national energy systems operator.
She became the first person to represent a political party at PMQs while pregnant earlier this year. Julia Lopez, the MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, will cover for her until the new year while she is on maternity leave. Coutinho is a keen cook in her spare time and once appeared on Nigella Lawson’s cooking gameshow The Taste.
Tom Tugendhat
Badenoch has made a show of purging the more “woke” MPs from the party, banning those who believe in pursuing net zero from standing at the next election for example, so the choice of the moderate Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary surprised some.
He replaces Priti Patel, who was sacked from the shadow cabinet. Tugendhat has experience in foreign affairs and previously served in the cabinet as security minister from September ۲۰۲۲ to July ۲۰۲۴. A former British army officer, he served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A remainer, he has also said he does not support leaving the European convention on human rights, which puts him at loggerheads with Badenoch.
Tugendhat stood as the moderate option in the Tory party leadership contest in ۲۰۲۲, but was beaten by a long way by Truss. He tried and lost again against Badenoch when Sunak stood down in ۲۰۲۴.
He was banned from driving for six months in ۲۰۲۲ for using his mobile phone at the wheel.
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Katie Lam
A darling of the Tory right, Lam was only elected in ۲۰۲۴. She has been given the role of shadow housing and communities minister, and is likely to relish being Angela Rayner’s opposite number. She is a former special adviser to Johnson, and she worked on Sunak’s first leadership bid. Outside politics she worked at the PR company Portland Communications and the AI company Faculty.
She has sometimes been tipped as a potential defector to Reform after saying many immigrants should “go home” and supporting the policy of revoking indefinite leave to remain. Her comments on immigration have gone further than official Conservative policy at some points.
Lam has written five musicals, including an adaptation of The Railway Children.
Other changes and those staying on
Chris Philp remains shadow home secretary. He supported Badenoch’s successful leadership campaign and has held the role since she became party leader.
James Cartlidge stays on as shadow defence secretary, a position he has held since Sunak appointed him to the role in ۲۰۲۴.
Andrew Bowie takes up Coutinho’s previous role as energy secretary.
The shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, quit the frontbench to “focus on constituency work”, and Damian Hinds assumes his brief.
