Senior Conservatives have urged Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick to rapidly settle any differences after the unveiling of the full shadow cabinet was marred by briefings and concern over lingering rivalries.
Badenoch, who became leader after defeating Jenrick in a vote of Tory members, held her first shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday, having named a team including three rival candidates, Jenrick among them, and a series of party centrists.
Some MPs have been alarmed at the slightly shaky start to the appointments process, when Jenrick’s role as justice secretary was leaked on Monday evening, along with suggestions he had sought a more senior job.
Nigel Huddleston, one of two party co-chairs named by Badenoch, in effect confirmed the initial news about Jenrick’s job had not come from the leader’s office, telling GB News on Tuesday morning that assuming it was confirmed was “jumping the gun”.
One former cabinet minister said they were worried that Badenoch and Jenrick, who exchanged increasingly personal barbs during the contest, could struggle to come together as a team.
“It wasn’t the ideal start, the briefings about his job,” they said. “I hope they can sort it out very quickly, because the last thing we need is any more drama. And I’m sure many colleagues feel the same way.”
Another former cabinet minister issued a similar warning. “Most people understand that there is so much work that we have to do in the Conservative party and discord and pettiness and rivalry are just not something that is really going to work,” they said.
“There will not be a lot of tolerance in the party for them to be pains in the arse with each other. That’s particularly acutely felt among the membership.”
A third former cabinet minister said it was incumbent on the shadow cabinet “to be loyal team players or to fail to learn the lessons of the past by briefing against our new leader”.
“Tory wars are so boring – we need Tory ideas and energy.”
Badenoch and Jenrick took notably different stances on some key policy areas, particularly immigration. While Jenrick strongly advocated leaving the European convention on human rights, Badenoch said that was not a magic bullet.
As the contest reached its final stages, Jenrick reacted furiously to Badenoch referring to the “whiff of impropriety” that resulted in him being removed as housing secretary after a conflict of interest controversy, saying a continuation of such attacks “will be the death of the Conservative party”.
In the first appointments to be announced, Badenoch gave top jobs to two other defeated leadership contenders, making Mel Stride her shadow chancellor and Priti Patel shadow foreign secretary.
The final big post, of shadow home secretary, went to the former policing minister Chris Philp, a vocal Badenoch supporter. One of her key parliamentary allies, Alex Burghart, was made her de facto deputy and government fixer, as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster.
Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister who also ran for the leadership, declined a role in the shadow cabinet although it was not immediately clear what he was offered. The remaining defeated candidate, James Cleverly, had already said he would return to the backbenches.
The shadow cabinet has some continuity, including with James Cartlidge as shadow defence secretary and Claire Coutinho, who had been tipped for a bigger promotion, as shadow energy and shadow equalities minister.
The former health minister Ed Argar will be shadow health secretary, Kevin Hollinrake will move from business to housing and communities and the former health secretary Victoria Atkins will shadow the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Helen Whately will be shadow work and pensions secretary, Gareth Bacon shadow transport secretary, Alan Mak shadow science and technology secretary, and Stuart Andrew shadow culture secretary.
Badenoch said the shadow cabinet “draws on the talents of people from across the Conservative party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective, just as I promised during the campaign”.
“Our party’s problems will only be solved with a team effort, and I am confident my shadow cabinet ministers will deliver effective opposition as we seek to win back the trust of the public,” she added.
