Four in 10 Tory MPs now on front bench as Sunak makes more appointments
Four in 10 Conservative MPs are now on the party’s front bench after Rishi Sunak made further appointments to his interim opposition team.
The former prime minister announced a flurry of junior appointments on Friday following the unveiling of his temporary shadow cabinet last week.
Friday’s announcement means there are now 51 MPs on the Conservative front bench, amounting to 42% of the total parliamentary party and underlining how far Tory numbers have dwindled.
Around 10 of those appointed on Friday are also doing more than one job.
Andrew Bowie, the shadow veterans minister, is now also a shadow energy security and net zero minister.
Appointments
Hampshire MP Paul Holmes has been given three jobs, shadowing the Foreign Office and the Northern Ireland Office while also acting as a Tory whip.
Other appointments made on Friday include Alicia Kearns, the former Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman, who has been made a shadow Foreign Office minister, and Danny Kruger, co-chair of the New Conservatives group, who has been made a shadow defence minister.
In the Lords, Earl Howe has been made shadow deputy leader of the house, continuing a 33-year unbroken run on the Conservative front bench that started when he was made a whip under John Major in 1991.
Friday’s appointments are likely to be temporary, with Mr Sunak’s replacement making their own choices once they have been elected.
The Conservative Party said it now “stands fully ready to provide the opposition the public deserves to this new Labour Government, especially following the King’s Speech and the announcement of this Government’s new legislative agenda”.
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Popcorn is ready for the new leadership churn. Come on, who will it be. And who will replace them soon after.
The face that watched 10,000 peg out after eating out…
Years ago I suggested Fat Shanks was a serial killer who had come among us with his sidekick Rishi the Smirking Robot…not wrong there was I…
All different under Labour leadership at the Senedd then?
You never can tell…what with all those think tanks and solicitor politicians festering away around Desolation Bay…