Tuesday 01 September 2026 4:31 pm
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Tuesday 01 September 2026 5:20 pm
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 2: Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch and Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith arrive at clothes retailer Charles Tyrwhitt on Jermyn Street on December 2, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch is visiting the retailer alongside Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith to discuss the impacts of the Autumn Budget on businesses. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
Sacking Mel Stride and promoting new faces like Katie Lam – along with appointing a shadow Chancellor who believes in private enterprise, is a signal of intent, says Oliver DeanFor roughly two years, Kemi Badenoch had kept the same old team in place. Mel Stride as shadow Chancellor; Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary. The list went on and on. Time and again, critics would raise concerns about such appointments. How can she renew the Conservative brand with a top team composed of people who’d served in previous governments that had so stained the Party’s reputation?Badenoch appears to have listened to her critics and agreed with their assessment. Earlier this week, she embarked on a ruthless clear out of the old guard. Mel Stride was replaced with Andrew Griffith. Priti Patel with Tom Tugendhat. Over the course of the day more and more old faces were told to pack up their things and leave, replaced by up and comers like Katie Lam and Harriet Cross, paving the way for a rejuvenated Shadow Cabinet.Perhaps the biggest shock of them all, however, was Stride’s departure. Stride has long been by Badenoch’s side, championing the Party’s pledge to abolish stamp duty and helping to lay the foundations for an economic revival. But, despite such commitments, he was struggling to cut through to the public. Indeed, it was once rumoured that when asked about Stride in a focus group, one respondent quipped “who’s she?”
