UK politics live: Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet revealed as former rival Tom Tugendhat ‘snubs role’

The government is looking to improve access to early legal advice and support, justice minister Heidi Alexander has said.

This came in response to Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed, who called on the government to look at “restoring legal aid to pre-2012 levels for all areas of civil law, to ensure that justice is made available to all”.

She added: “Will she commit to reviewing the bureaucracy of the Legal Aid Agency, which doesn’t support the needs and capacity of small firms?”

Ms Alexander replied: “We are looking to how we can improve access to early legal advice and support, but she will also appreciate the very challenging financial outlook that we are grappling with.

“I will raise the administrative issues in relation to Legal Aid Agency with the chief executive there.”

Mel Stride, the second to be knocked out of the Tory leadership race after Priti Patel, has bagged himself one of the most important shadow cabinet jobs, our lobby team reports.

The MP for Central Devon made a name for himself as the mouthpiece for Rishi Sunak’s election campaign, being wheeled out on the broadcast round on an almost weekly basis.

He was a loyal ally of Mr Sunak, having served as his work and pensions secretary throughout his time in office.

Before that, he did a brief stint as leader of the House of Commons from May to July 2019, and served as financial secretary to the Treasury and paymaster general from 2017 to 2019.

Robert Jenrick has been reminded that the Conservatives left the country with fewer than 500 extra prison places after 14 years in power, as he sought to press the new government on plans to increase capacity.

During a back and forth in the Commons, the new shadow justice secretary said: “The last Conservative government built more prison places than any prior Labour government in living memory, but we clearly need to go further.

“What funding has the Lord Chancellor secured to build prisons over and above those that were secured by the previous government? And does she agree with her other junior minister, that fewer people should be sent to prison?”

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones replied: “Again, I think [Mr Jenrick] forgets who was in power for the last 14 years and who failed to build any prison places.

“Just 500 extra prison places were built under his government’s watch. This government has achieved a record £1.2bn in prison building amount of allocation from the Budget and we will be going further, we are the party of law and order.”

Kemi Badenoch has appointed a cross-party shadow cabinet in a bid to reunite the Conservatives after a fractious leadership campaign.

Our Westminster team has more details here:

Robert Jenrick has used his first Commons appearance as shadow justice secretary to suggest that Labour should apologise to the victims of domestic abusers and sex offenders who have reoffended after being released early from prison.

But Labour justice minister Alex Davies-Jones hit back: “He seems to have a very short memory and I believe it is is he who should be apologising to the country as a whole on behalf of his government’s woeful, absolute misabuse of our justice system and our prisons.

“Under the previous government’s [early release scheme] there was zero exemptions that could protect the public. This government put in serious exemptions to prevent sex offenders being released onto our streets ... and I believe [Mr Jenrick] should maybe have a bit of humility.”

Mr Jenrick replied that there were exemptions in the Tory scheme, which saw more than 13,000 people – a quarter of them convicted of violent crimes – freed early between October and July, but said: “The key thing is we need to get on and build more prisons.”

Labour MP Chris Webb has revealed that he was mugged in London, with his attackers stealing his phone.

The new MP for Blackpool South said: “Last night, as I was returning to my flat in London, I was attacked and mugged by a group of individuals.

“Luckily, I have no injuries and I am ok. Unfortunately, they just took my phone so I’m without one for the foreseeable future.”

Thanking the Metropolitan Police “for their swift response and support”, Mr Webb said: “The officers who assisted me went above and beyond. They are a remarkable credit to the force.”

Kemi Badenoch’s decision to appoint Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary has reportedly been met with scorn by one senior Tory.

Following reports of Ms Patel’s appointment, BBC political editor Chris Mason said he was contacted by the senior Tory who accused Ms Badenoch of having “destroyed within 48 hours any chance she had of having a respectable foreign policy”.

Prior to serving as Boris Johnson’s home secretary, Ms Patel was international development secretary under Theresa May – but was fired from the role in 2017 after holding unsanctioned meetings with senior Israeli politicians, including premier Benjamin Netanyahu, while on a “private holiday”.

Kemi Badenoch’s new shadow cabinet includes just four people from her rival Robert Jenrick’s leadership campaign, despite 41 Tory MPs backing him, according to Steven Swinford of The Times.

He suggested that Jenrick-backers who missed out on shadow cabinet positions could later be appointed to more junior roles.

Rachel Reeves’ inheritance tax raid will hit three quarters of food produced by British farmers, industry chiefs have warned, as the government battles a growing backlash over its extension of death tax.

Under plans announced in the Budget, inheritance tax will be charged at 20 per cent on farms worth more than £1m, although the chancellor has said that in some cases the threshold could in practice be about £3m.

The move has triggered backlash from farming and rural communities and led to a dispute over the number of businesses that would be affected.

While the government has insisted that only a minority of farmers will be impacted, Tom Bradshaw, chief executive of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), said around “75 per cent of the total farmed area” would be subject to the extended death tax.

Our political correspondent Millie Cooke has the full report:

Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK has seen a boost in membership since Kemi Badenoch was picked as Conservative Party leader.

He told LBC: “Seeing it already. Seeing it already. We’ve gone through 95,000 members this morning. So we’ve gone up 1,500 in the last three or four days.

“And these are Conservatives who are hanging on to see whether the party could change direction. For us as a party, it’s very good news.”

Speaking from a Donald Trump rally in the US, he said of Ms Badenoch: “There’s going to be no change whatsoever. She is a continuity candidate with all the influences of Michael Gove and all the gang in 10 Downing Street, and somehow she thinks, miraculously, she can bring them together.

“There are two parties within the Conservative Party. You’ve got the Reform-minded people and the Liberal Democrat-minded people, and they are so far apart, it’s not true.”