Badenoch’s brutal reshuffle shows she is finally in charge of her party

After she took over as leader of the Tory Party almost two years ago – seeing off challenges from James Cleverly, Mel Stride and Priti Patel – Kemi Badenoch pledged not to hold a reshuffle before the next general election. Part of her reasoning was to mollify the disappointed big beasts who could have tried to topple her in her first few stumbling months as leader. That she has now broken her pledge and ruthlessly dispatched Stride and Patel – as well as preventing other old Tory veterans such as Grant Shapps from returning as MPs – shows, insiders say, that she is finally strong enough to create a top team in her own mold. Shorts Clevelry, meanwhile, stood down on Saturday to run for Mayor for London in two years time – hardly a display of confidence in his Parliamentary career prospects. In January 2025, Badenoch’s spokesman was asked whether shadow chancellor Mel Stride could expect to remain in his job for the next four years. “Yes,” he said. Asked whether the same guarantee applied to the whole shadow cabinet, he again said yes.Six months later, Badenoch reshuffled. Now, just over a year after that first overhaul, she has done it again but with no regard to the big names she is demoting. Reform UK says her shadow cabinet reshuffle exposes a leader who cannot keep her word. Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman and a former Conservative Party member, seized on the contradiction after the changes were announced on Monday, accusing Badenoch on Twitter of being a “con artist” and pointing out that she had explicitly promised last year not to reshuffle her shadow cabinet. Tories are stuck But beneath the show of strength is a more uncomfortable reality: the Conservatives are treading water in the shallow end of the polls. “It’s partly because the Tories are stuck in the polls and can’t budge forward, so they hope a refreshed team will do it. Only time will tell,” one Tory source said. The latest BMG poll for The i Paper, published this weekend, puts Labour on 27 per cent, Reform UK on 23 per cent and the Conservatives on just 18 per cent. The Tories remain in third place, four points behind Reform and nine points behind Labour. The contradiction for Badenoch is that her personal ratings are improving. The same poll gives her a net rating of zero – hardly a ringing endorsement, but a marked improvement on Rishi Sunak’s nadir of minus 44 and not far behind Andy Burnham’s plus six. It is rare for any party leader to be in positive numbers. And that creates the central problem for Badenoch. If the leader is becoming less of an issue but the party is not gaining in the polls, then what – or who – is holding the Conservatives back? Inside the party, some believe the answer is the shadow cabinet. And if there is one lesson every opposition party knows, it is that elections are ultimately won or lost on the economy. Biggest casualty of Badenoch’s reshuffle is Stride So it was telling that the biggest casualty of Badenoch’s reshuffle is the man who had been responsible for selling the Conservatives’ economic case for almost two years. Mel Stride has been sacked as shadow chancellor and replaced by Andrew Griffith. The former shadow business secretary and former Chief Operating Officer of Sky and Chairman of Just Eat, will now lead a new Economic Leadership Team designed to put growth at the centre of the Conservatives’ offer. Claire Coutinho becomes his deputy, as well as shadow business, innovation, science and trade secretary, while Richard Fuller stays as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, focused on fiscal discipline. Julia Lopez will stand in for Coutinho, who is expecting her second child, while she is on maternity leave until the New Year. Griffith said he and Badenoch were “united” in believing Britain needed an “economic revolution”, promising to bring his business experience to bear, cut taxes and regulation and back the “wealth creators” who deliver growth, investment and jobs. Kemi Badenoch has replaced Mel Stride as her shadow chancellor (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire) The party is selling Griffith as a “no-nonsense, pro-growth” chancellor with genuine private-sector experience and extensive business contacts. Coutinho, meanwhile, is being brought into the heart of the economic operation, with her background at Merrill Lynch and KPMG and her experience as energy secretary being presented as evidence that she can turn complicated economic policy into something voters can understand. It is the clearest signal yet that Badenoch intends to make the economy the centrepiece of her next election pitch. Stride, meanwhile, leaves the shadow cabinet with warm words from his party leader. Badenoch praised his “experience, seriousness and stability” while Stride was equally gracious and said he was proud of what his team had achieved. He will now return to the backbenches. ‘Mel hasn’t waded in on big things’ But behind the scenes, the verdict is less flattering. “Mel isn’t well liked across the party and hasn’t really waded in on big things,” one senior insider said. There was, however, a significant qualification. Stride has only expanded his political operation in the past eight weeks, bringing in three political advisers, or PADs. That feeds into a much broader complaint inside the party: that some shadow ministers have been expected to make an impact without the political machinery needed to do it. “What I will say is those that are being shuffled out haven’t been able to make an impact because they’ve had no PADs,” the insider said. “Unless the party brings in people, it’ll be the same again.” The changes to Badenoch’s top team began to take shape on Saturday when James Cleverly announced that he was leaving the shadow cabinet to run for London mayor. The move was widely expected. Cleverly had been lobbied about the potential opportunity for months, according to insiders, particularly as it became increasingly clear that Badenoch was not going anywhere as her performance as leader improved. The current London mayor Sadiq Khan has yet to confirm whether he will seek a fourth term, while Labour figures including Dawn Butler, David Lammy and Rosena Allin-Khan are already being discussed as potential successors. Reform has already selected Laila Cunningham as its London mayoral candidate. For the Conservatives, the contest could become an important test of whether they can compete with Reform in one of the country’s most politically significant regions. The news was swiftly followed on Sunday night by the announcement that Priti Patel was being removed as shadow foreign secretary and replaced by Tom Tugendhat. Patel will instead take on an international role focused on strengthening links with sister centre-right parties. One senior insider described Tugendhat’s appointment as evidence of “square pegs for square holes” – a sign that Badenoch was now putting people into roles according to their strengths rather than factional considerations. Badenoch has moved on from factional hires Another was more blunt about Patel’s demotion. “She seemed to get hit with the Boriswave label every time she stuck her head above the parapet,” the source said. Both her move and the sacking of Stride have raised eyebrows within the party given the broadside that Robert Jenrick (who lost in the head to head against Badenoch two years ago) launched against them when he defected to Reform in January last year. He blamed Stride for the “explosion of the welfare bill” and accused Patel of failing to get a grip on illegal immigration. On Monday, Stuart Andrew became the third senior figure to leave the frontbench, announcing he was stepping down as shadow health secretary after almost a decade in frontbench roles. Chris Philp, meanwhile, survived. There had been speculation that the shadow home secretary could be moved, with his performance and future role the subject of considerable chatter inside the party. One insider said Philp “gets shat on from colleagues who think they can do it better”, but added that he “works hard” and had begun to get some traction on illegal immigration. The reshuffle has also prompted intense speculation about who might be promoted. Badenoch was expected to use the changes to bring through a younger generation of Conservatives, with Andrew Bowie, Harriet Cross, Katie Lam, Jack Rankin and Robbie Moore among the names being discussed for bigger roles. In the run-up to her first anniversary, some shadow ministers were reportedly considering the “nuclear” option of resigning en masse to force a leadership contest. At the same time, Badenoch’s team was given details of a 14-strong WhatsApp group of Conservative MPs plotting to oust her. The coup never happened. Now, nearly two years into her leadership, Badenoch is finally behaving like a leader who believes she has survived the danger period. Her supporters also see her as a leader who is now strong enough to choose her own team.