Kemi Badenoch's 'panic button' reshuffle with return of top Tory to frontline

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has been accused of hitting the "panic button" with a reshuffle of her top team.

The Conservative chief, who has been struggling to revive her party's gloomy fortunes, brought gaffe-prone Sir James Cleverly back into the fold. The former Foreign Secretary, who stood against Ms Badenoch in last year's Tory leadership contest, will now be Shadow Housing Secretary.

His return to frontline politics means he will now face Deputy PM Angela Rayner, who is also Housing Secretary, in the Commons. In 2023, The Mirror reported the ex-Cabinet minister joked about giving his wife a date-rape drug - just hours after announcing a crackdown on the growing epidemic of drinks spiking.

The top Tory told female guests at a No10 reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”. A spokesman for the ex-Home Secretary said at the time: "In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the Home Secretary tackling spiking, made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke - for which he apologises."

In the autumn of 2022 Sir James suggested getting rid of ex-PM Liz Truss would be a "disastrously bad idea". She announced her resignation seven days later.

The following year the ex-minister- a key face in recent Tory governments - also said he could not remember if he ever described the Conservatives' flagship Rwanda deportation scheme as "batsh**".

And the same year it was claimed he described aLabour MP's constituency as a "sh**hole". A source close to the then-Home Secretary denied the claim at the time. They added: "James made a comment. He called Alex Cunningham a sh** MP. He apologises for unparliamentary language. As was made clear...he would never criticise Stockton."

Among other appointments on Tuesday the Tory MP Kevin Hollinrake, who held the housing brief, became chairman of the Conservative Party. Ex-chairman Nigel Huddleston was appointed Shadow Culture Secretary.

A Labour source told The Mirror: “After initially claiming her Shadow Cabinet would be in place until the next election, Kemi Badenoch has already hit the panic button." The Tory leader can shuffle as many deckchairs as she likes, but it’ll still be the same old faces that were responsible for 14 years of failure. They crashed the economy and ran public services into the ground.“

The Lib Dems added: “Kemi Badenoch has appointed the very man who said that replacing Liz Truss as Prime Minister would be a terrible idea. It’s like appointing an iceberg apologist to a role steering the Titanic.

"The public won’t forgive this group of failed former Conservative ministers for the damage they did to our economy and NHS."

On Tuesday the Tory MP Ed Argar also quit as Shadow Health Secretary, citing a "health scare". Ms Badenoch said she was "saddened" that Mr Argar feels "unable to continue" in his position, but agreed "that you must put your health first".

In a letter to the party leader dated July 9, Mr Argar said: "I had a health scare earlier this summer and remain grateful to the doctors and hospital staff who looked after me."

He added: "I have been well looked after, but have also listened to what the doctors said to me, and have listened to my family, and have concluded that lightening my front-bench workload over the coming months, in order to complete my recovery and fully restore my health in that period, is the sensible approach." Mr Argar was replaced by Stuart Andrew, who previously held the culture brief.

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