Dame Priti Patel and Mel Stride given top jobs in new Tory frontbench team

Mel Stride has been appointed shadow chancellor and Dame Priti Patel has been appointed shadow foreign secretary by new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

The two former Tory leadership candidates are the first appointments Ms Badenoch has made to shadow the so-called “great offices of state”: the Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Home Secretary.

Dame Priti and Mr Stride were both early rivals of Ms Badenoch during the Tory leadership contest.

The PA news agency understands 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.

Rivals

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 has already ruled himself out from such a job.

Ms Badenoch had earlier named Laura Trott as her shadow education secretary and Tory former minister Neil O’Brien as a shadow education minister, ahead of education questions in the House of Commons.

It was reported on Sunday that Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris would become the party’s new chief whip, while Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson have been made joint chairmen.

Experience

It is understood Ms Badenoch has told Tory staff that Mr Huddleston and Lord Johnson have been appointed due to their broad experience in the party.

Andrew Griffith, a former Treasury minister, had been tipped for the role of shadow chancellor before Mr Stride’s appointment was announced.

Other potential frontbenchers include former energy security secretary Claire Coutinho and interim shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez.

In an address to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) staff on Monday morning, it is thought Ms Badenoch said the first challenge for the party will be winning back council seats at local elections.

She is also understood to have said the party can turn their situation around in one term and that policy will come soon, but the party needs to start with principles such as freedom of speech and personal responsibility.

Ms Badenoch is expected to name her full shadow cabinet team ahead of their first meeting on Tuesday.

The announcement of the new shadow cabinet follows Ms Badenoch’s victory over former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in the Tory leadership race on Saturday.

In her first media appearance since that victory, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that she would tell “hard truths” to the country and her party.

She drew criticism for suggesting the so-called partygate scandal that saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules had been “overblown”.