New Tory leader of Badenoch sets about appointing top team

New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has begun making the first appointments to her senior team ahead of a new shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Badenoch has appointed MP Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson as co-chairs of the Conservative Party, the BBC understands.

The pair will replace Richard Fuller, who was appointed interim chairman by Rishi Sunak after the party’s election defeat in July.

This follows the appointment of the Castle Point MP. Dame Rebecca Harris – Tory chief whip on Sunday evening.

Badenoch was declared the winner of the Conservative Party leadership election on Saturday, beating Robert Jenrick to the top job.

Badenoch told Tory headquarters staff on Monday that the Tories could return to government within five years, a party source told the BBC.

She said their first priority was to listen to local Tories and win back council seats at local elections next May. She also told staff that she had appointed two new co-chairs because of their extensive experience within the party.

Huddleson, MP for Droitwich and Evesham in the West Midlands, previously worked under Badenoch as a minister when she was business secretary. Most recently he was Minister of Finance.

Lord Johnson also served under Badenoch as Trade Secretary after Liz Truss appointed him to the House of Lords during her short tenure as Prime Minister. He previously served as vice-chair of the party under Theresa May between 2016 and 2019 and has donated more than £275,000 to the Tories over the past decade.

In 2007, he co-founded the investment company Somerset Capital Management with former Conservative MP and minister Jacob Rees-Mogg.

A formal announcement of the full composition of the shadow cabinet is expected before its first meeting on Tuesday.

Badenoch is expected to make way for her leadership rival Jenrick after she said in her victory speech that he had a “key role to play in our party for many years to come”.

On Sunday she said she would bring people from all wings of the party into her team.

She said she wanted a “shadow cabinet that is meritocratic, that brings in the diversity of experience, the geographic diversity, the work experience, the professional experience that MPs had before they came (to Parliament).”

The current Labor government has 120 ministers, meaning the Tories may struggle to cover all the posts given they only have 121 MPs.

Former home secretary and defeated leadership candidate James Cleverley last week ruled out serving in the shadow cabinet. I tell FT he had been “relieved” of 16 years on the political front line and was now “not particularly in the mood to be in a small group again.”

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, former deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden and former environment secretary Steve Barclay also said they would return to the bench and not serve in the new shadow cabinet.