Conservatives add front bench members reduced after election

Image Source, Getty photos

Photo Title, Alicia Kearns chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee before the election

7 hours ago

Rishi Sunak has appointed more people to the temporary opposition team, with four of the 10 Conservative MPs now taking up cabinet posts.

The former prime minister has made a series of junior appointments after confirming his shadow cabinet last week.

In a sign of the party’s thinning ranks following its election defeat, several of its members now hold more than one seat, with Hamble Valley MP Paul Holmes holding three.

The changes are likely to be temporary as Mr Sunak looks set to step down after leading the party to its worst result in modern history.

Party leaders are due to announce a timetable for the leadership election next week.

The latest appointments mean 51 of the 121 elected Conservative MPs have taken up positions in party governments.

Among them was Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Stamford, appointed shadow foreign secretary, who had earlier spoken on behalf of the party during the Gaza debate.

Mr Holmes, who was elected at the previous general election in 2019, also became Shadow Minister for the department, as well as holding senior roles in the Northern Ireland Office and being chairman of the party’s parliamentary group.

In other appointments, Danny Kruger, co-leader of the New Conservatives group on the party’s right, becomes shadow defence minister.

The party said the announcements signified its readiness to provide “the opposition that society deserves” and more appointments are planned in the future.

So far, no Conservative MPs have said they will run in the election to succeed Mr Sunak, although there are ongoing discussions within the party about when and how this should happen.

Possible candidates for the leadership job include Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat, Victoria Atkins and Suella Braverman, who Mr Sunak sacked as Home Secretary last year.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel was also expected to contest the election, as was Robert Jenrick, who resigned as immigration secretary in Sunak’s government last year after a dispute over legislation to implement the now-abandoned Rwandan deportation scheme.