Philp appointed shadow home secretary by Badenoch

Chris Philp has been appointed shadow home secretary by new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.

The former Home Office minister supported Badenoch's leadership campaign.

On Monday it emerged that Badenoch had offered three of her former leadership rivals senior roles.

Robert Jenrick, who was beaten in the final round, will serve as shadow justice secretary, while Mel Stride will be shadow chancellor and Dame Priti Patel will be shadow foreign secretary.

Badenoch has now named her full shadow cabinet team ahead of their first meeting on Tuesday morning.

Ed Argar, a former justice and health minister, has been made shadow health and social care secretary, while Claire Coutinho keeps her job as shadow secretary of state for energy security and net zero, as well as taking on the shadow equalities brief.

Philp was first elected as MP for Croydon South in 2015 and before joining Parliament set up businesses in finance and travel.

As well as serving as a junior minister in the Home Office under Rishi Sunak, he has previously held a number of other government roles including briefly serving as chief secretary to the Treasury under Liz Truss.

Badenoch’s shadow cabinet leans heavily on those who supported her leadership campaign.

Of the line-up, 15 backed her, five did not declare for either of the final two, and just three backed Jenrick, including Jenrick himself.

Some Conservatives are already noting that it is strikingly similar to a line-up Sunak could have selected.

Nine of the new shadow cabinet have been at the real cabinet table - perhaps unsurprising for a party which has just been ejected from government but nevertheless a sign that Badenoch has not opted for a radically fresh team.

One senior Conservative told the BBC: "For a party that just had a right vs right leadership contest the almost total absence of the right will not help."

They warned that right-wing Conservative MPs, who mostly backed Jenrick’s campaign, are now more likely to agitate against Badenoch’s leadership.

Badenoch said her new shadow cabinet "draws on the talents of people from across the Conservative Party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective".

She added: "We will now get to work holding Labour to account and rebuilding our party based on Conservative principles and values.

"The process of renewing our great party has now begun."

By giving jobs to some of her former rivals in the Tory leadership race, as well as figures from different wings of the party, Badenoch will be hoping to unite the Conservatives after they suffered their worst ever general election defeat in July.

However, there was wrangling over which, if any, job Jenrick would take.

The BBC has been told he turned down several roles before eventually accepting shadow justice secretary.

The pair clashed during the final weeks of the leadership contest, with Jenrick accusing Badenoch of being "disrespectful" to Tory members by choosing not to set out detailed policies.

Badenoch defended her approach, saying she did not want to rush into deciding policies and make promises before she knew how to deliver them.

She had hoped to give jobs to all of the former leadership contenders but James Cleverly - who came third in the contest - ruled himself out before the results were announced on Saturday.

Tom Tugendhat, who came fourth, is not listed as a member of Badenoch's top team.

He is thought to have been offered a role but decided to go to the backbenches.

Other roles announced on Tuesday include:

• Shadow defence secretary - James Cartlidge
• Shadow business secretary - Andrew Griffith
• Shadow work and pensions secretary - Helen Whately
• Shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary - Kevin Hollinrake
• Shadow environment, food and rural affairs secretary - Victoria Atkins

Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Laura Trott had already been confirmed as shadow education secretary, with Neil O’Brien appointed shadow education minister.

Both appeared in their new roles in the House of Commons at Education Questions on Monday.

Labour Party chairwoman Ellie Reeves said: "Instead of turning the page on 14 years of Tory government, Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet shows that the Conservatives have learnt nothing.

"How can the new Conservative leader claim to be changing the Tory Party when most of her team were ministers for Liz Truss as they crashed Britain’s economy, or claim to want to uphold standards when most went AWOL for the vote on Boris Johnson’s antics at Partygate?"

The Liberal Democrats branded the appointments a "cabinet of contradictions" and "a recipe for yet more Conservative chaos".

The party's Cabinet Office spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: "How can they claim to be able to hold this new government to account when they have just as many disagreements with each other?"