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.
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 2024. 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 £9.5m townhouse as his leadership campaign HQ in 2019.
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. 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.
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