KEMI BADENOCH named Alex Burghart deputy leader of the Tory Party today as part of a reshuffle of her low-impact top team.

Mr Burghart, who leads for the Conservatives on the Cabinet Office and Northern Ireland, is regarded as a Badenoch loyalist, and he will stand in for his leader as required.

The reshuffle, which Ms Badenoch hopes will meet both the challenge from Reform on her right flank and the new energy infusing the Labour government, also saw Mel Stride sacked as shadow chancellor.

Mr Stride is replaced by hard-right businessman Andrew Griffiths, the former shadow business secretary who was a strong backer of ex-premier Liz Truss and her disastrous Budget in 2022.

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel is also quitting the front bench, replaced by one-time Tory leadership challenger Tom Tugendhat. 

Mr Tugendhat is regarded as more centrist than most of his colleagues, but is known for his hard-line foreign policy views, particularly in relation to Russia and Iran.

Claire Coutinho is to replace Mr Griffiths in the business role when she returns from maternity leave. She too is a former business executive.

Ms Badenoch’s Tories are struggling in third place in the polls, with a smaller share of the vote than they secured in 2024, itself the worst general election result in the party’s long history.

Thus her reshuffled shadow cabinet is not seen as a government in waiting as much as a team aimed at restoring the Tories’ traditional hegemonic position on the right of British politics.