A new leader of the opposition means a new shadow front bench. Whether or not you define it as a reshuffle (personally, I wouldn’t even call it a shuffle), this was Kemi Badenoch’s first big opportunity to define her leadership by selecting her top team. And she took her time over it, dragging the process out throughout the day on Monday and this morning. So what have we learned so far?
Badenoch promised during the leadership contest that there would be jobs in her shadow cabinet for all the candidates, and that she would draw talent from across the Tory party when appointing her front bench. Partly, this is a necessity of filling up to 120 shadow ministerial roles with a parliamentary cohort of just 121 MPs (some roles will no doubt double up or else be drawn from the Lords). But it’s also critical to try to unite a party so deeply divided – and a marked difference to how Liz Truss went about things, stacking her cabinet with staunch allies.
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