UK politics live: Badenoch’s shadow cabinet shows Tories ‘learned nothing’ from Truss chaos, says Labour

Kemi Badenoch has shared pictures of her first meeting with the shadow cabinet after announcing it in full this morning.

In a post on X, she said: “Delighted to hold my first meeting of the new Shadow Cabinet this morning.

“My team draws on talents from across our party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective, just as I promised during the campaign.

“We will now get to work holding Labour to account and rebuilding our party based on Conservative principles and values.”

From the top row, left to right, here are images of the people joining Kemi Badenoch’s top team.

• Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: James Cartlidge MP
• Shadow Home Secretary: Chris Philp MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs: Dame Priti Patel MP
• Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Mel Stride MP
• Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary: Ed Argar MP
• Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland: Alex Burghart MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Justice: Robert Jenrick MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and Shadow Minister for Equalities: Claire Coutinho MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade: Andrew Griffith MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Victoria Atkins MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Kevin Hollinrake MP
• Co-Chairman of the Party: Nigel Huddleston
• Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Helen Whately MP
• Opposition Chief Whip (Commons): Dame Rebecca Harris MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Shadow Minister for Women: Mims Davies MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Shadow Minister of State for Energy and Net Zero Andrew Bowie
• Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology: Alan Mak MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport: Stuart Andrew MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Transport: Gareth Bacon MP
• Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Richard Fuller MP
• Shadow Leader of the House of Lords Lord True,
• Parliamentary Private Secretary: Julia Lopez MP
• Co-Chairman of the Party: Lord Dominic Johnson
• Shadow Leader of the House of Commons: Jesse Norman MP
• Shadow Secretary of State for Education: Laura Trott MP

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”.

More than 1,500 foreign criminals have been deported since the election, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood said.

During a questioning in the House of Commons, Ms Mahmood said she agreed with the public’s view that there are “too many” foreign nationals in the UK.

More foreign criminals have been deported since the election than when Robert Jenrick - who was today appointed shadow justice secretary - was immigration minister.

Ms Mahmood told the house: “We are on track to remove more foreign offenders this year than in previous years. In fact, over the same period when the previous government was in office and in fact the shadow justice secretary was himself the immigration officer, the number was around 1,300.

“We have now returned 1,500 foreign offenders, and of course, utilising all of the prisoner transfer agreements at our disposal, and are actively trying to negotiate more so that we can continue to speed up removals from our country.”

Robert Jenrick has suffered an embarrassing putdown in his first Commons outing as shadow justice secretary.

Hours after his appointment was confirmed by new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, the hardline right-winger sought to attack Labour’s record in government from the despatch box.

In his first intervention in his new post, Mr Jenrick lashed out at the party’s early release scheme for prisoners to free up space in the overcrowded estate.

Mr Jenrick said that, since July’s general election, “the only group this Labour government’s popularity has increased with is criminals”.

Read the full report by our political correspondent Archie Mitchell:

The government has drawn up plans to ensure the UK is “domestically as resilient as we possibly can be” this winter, Downing Street said.

Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said the government is “preparing for all eventualities” as winter looms.

This includes the impact of extreme weather and impacts on the NHS, the spokesman added.

It is likely to be a colder and wetter winter than usual in the UK, with a La Nina cooling weather phenomenon expected to kick in at the end of the year.

At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, net zero secretary Ed Miliband noted warnings that future flooding could impact 600,000 people in the UK as a result of climate change.

The cabinet briefing on winter preparations was led by chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden, who said that the devastating flooding in Spain is a “reminder of the impact that, for example, extreme weather can have on local communities”.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman added: “The link was made to the fact that climate change can result in extreme weather events. We have obviously seen these very devastating scenes in Spain.”

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: