It’s the end of summer and Kemi Badenoch chose to mark the occasion with a reshuffle of her shadow cabinet. Her aim is apparently to get the Tories match fit in case Andy Burnham calls an early general election, but the vibes are much more rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship. After all, when the gene pool of talent is that small, there’s not much you can do.
James Cleverly got the ball rolling by announcing he was planning to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor in two years’ time. He may have his work cut out. London is a liberal, multicultural city and unlikely to be won over by a party giving up on net zero and the European convention on human rights.
Cleverly’s replacement as shadow housing secretary is Katie Lam, who was only elected two years ago but has been desperate to attract attention by consistently saying the most offensive thing she can think of. Priti Patel’s departure as foreign secretary was no great surprise as she has always been a liability, but Kemi’s decision to appoint Tom Tugendhat in her place did raise eyebrows. Tom has always been from the One Nation side of the party and Kemi didn’t seem to realise that when he said: “If I had known Kemi was this good I wouldn’t have stood against her,” he had merely been joking.
He is at least a serious politician in the way Priti never was, but you also can’t help wondering if he is really signed up to Kemi’s Reform-lite Tory agenda. Still, Tom has never been one to shy away from going to war with anyone, so he and Kemi will have something in common. That just leaves the change of shadow chancellor.
It goes without saying that Mel Stride had always been endearingly hopeless, but the choice of Andrew Griffith to take over is bewildering. The Tories always like to play up Griffith’s career in business, but what the rest of the country will be focusing on is that he was the co-author and defender of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget. So maybe his economic judgment is not that sound after all.
It should also be remembered that Griffith was Boris Johnson’s “net zero business champion” in 2020; something he and Kemi are also hoping to forget. Maybe the key to understanding Griffith is that he is just a career opportunist who doesn’t really believe in anything. In which case he may fit in just fine.
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