Kemi Badenoch Brings Back James Cleverly In Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle

Kemi Badenoch is carrying out a reshuffle of her shadow cabinet (Alamy)

Zoe Crowther

@zoenora6

Edward Argar, who held a number of ministerial roles under the previous government, is resigning as shadow health secretary to complete his "recovery and fully restore my health" after a health scare earlier in the summer. PoliticsHome understands former culture minister Stuart Andrew will take his place.

PoliticsHome can also confirm that former business minister Kevin Hollinrake will become Conservative party chairman, while former chairman Nigel Huddleston will become shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport to replace Andrew.

The Conservative Party will announce the changes to the shadow ministerial team throughout Tuesday.

With Cleverly moving into the shadow housing secretary position, he will go up against Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in the House of Commons.

Cleverly, who ran unsuccessfully to be Tory leader last year, told PoliticsHome earlier this month that a “philosophical reset” in how the British public views national defence, but also admitted that the Conservatives' general election pledge to introduce national service was a "counterproductive move".

He has also cautioned the party against pandering to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, which has continued to outperform the Conservatives (and Labour) in the polls since last year's general election.

However, Badenoch has been warned by some of her own MPs that the party does not have a robust plan for dealing with the threat of Reform.

Badenoch replaced Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader following the party's heavy defeat to Keir Starmer's Labour at the July 2024 general election.

Since then, the Tories have struggled to demonstrate signs of recovery in the opinion polls, and in May suffered major local elections losses to Reform and the Liberal Democrats.

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