KEMI Badenoch has confirmed two former Tory leadership rivals will be part of her cabinet.
The new party leader has named former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride as shadow chancellor and former home secretary Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary.
Robert Jenrick, who was pipped to the top job by Badenoch in the final vote, will take on the shadow justice brief, in a move intended to underline party unity.
An ally of the former minister told The Times: "Rob thinks the party needs to come together and take the fight to Labour. Unity could not be more important. He’s eager to expose Labour’s dreadful record on law and order."
Both Patel and Stride were both unsuccessful candidates in the recent Tory leadership contest and are the first appointments Badenoch has made to shadow the so-called “great offices of state”: the Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Home Secretary.
It is thought the pair’s appointment to the opposition frontbench is an effort to unite different factions of the Conservative Party following the long internal election battle.
The new Conservative leader insisted she would offer all her rivals in the race roles in her shadow cabinet, but former home secretary James Cleverly (below) has already ruled himself out from such a job.
Elsewhere, Laura Trott has also been confirmed as shadow education secretary, while Tory former minister Neil O’Brien has become shadow education minister.
Trott responded in the Commons on Monday to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s announcement that university tuition fees in England are set to rise.
It was reported on Sunday that Essex MP Rebecca Harris would become the party’s new chief whip, while Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson have been made joint chairmen.
The full Tory frontbench team is expected to be confirmed by Tuesday morning, when they will have their first meeting.
The announcement of the new shadow cabinet follows Badenoch’s victory over former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in the Tory leadership race on Saturday.
