Kemi Badenoch reveals shadow cabinet as former rival Tugendhat ‘snubs role’ – live

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.”

They say God loves a trier and Chris Philp, the former minister for policing, is one Tory who can never be accused of failing to put in a shift, frequently appearing in the media to dutifully defend the latest party line on the issue of the day.

The reward for his unwavering loyalty may now have arrived, as he takes a leadership role in Kemi Badenoch’s new cabinet, after being appointed as shadow home secretary.

While the MP for Croydon South is not afraid to get his hands dirty, evidenced by his loyal defences of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in the darkest hours of their respective premierships, some critics have suggested he does not share the communication skills and political nous displayed by some of his front bench colleagues.

Matt Mathers takes a look at his history of gaffes:

One notable absence from Kemi Badenoch new shadow cabinet is leadership rival Tom Tugendhat, who previously held the esteemed chairmanship of the Commons foreign affairs committee and served as security minister under Rishi Sunak.

However, Jessica Elgot of The Guardian reports a Conservative source as suggesting that Mr Tugendhat was in fact offered a role but turned it down, joining other senior Tories such as Andrew Mitchell and James Cleverly on the backbenches.

Kemi Badenoch’s new shadow “cabinet of contradictions is a recipe for yet more Conservative chaos”, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

“How can they claim to be able to hold this new government to account when they have just as many disagreements with each other?” said Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Sarah Olney MP.

“From a shadow justice secretary who wants to leave the ECHR to a shadow foreign secretary who had to resign for holding undisclosed meetings, this shadow cabinet has more than a ‘whiff of impropriety’.

“The Conservative Party voted for the economic vandalism caused by Liz Truss’s mini Budget and shattered the NHS. Every major challenge that this country faces the Conservative Party is responsible for.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only Party that can provide the decent opposition that this country needs.”

Kemi Badenoch has insisted she will “win back the trust of the public”, as she announced her shadow cabinet.

The new Tory leader said: “I am delighted to have appointed my shadow cabinet, which draws on the talents of people from across the Conservative Party, based on meritocracy and with a breadth of experience and perspective, just as I promised during the campaign.

“Our party’s problems will only be solved with a team effort, and I am confident my shadow cabinet ministers will deliver effective opposition as we seek to win back the trust of the public.

“We will now get to work holding Labour to account and rebuilding our party based on Conservative principles and values. The process of renewing our great party has now begun.”

The Conservative Party’s new co-chair has said he needs to build the party’s membership, which has significantly declined.

Nigel Huddleston was asked about Reform UK reporting it has 95,000 members, while the Tory leadership election results on Saturday showed the party had 131,680 Tory members eligible to vote – a record low.

He told LBC: “One of my roles is to grow the membership base, and I understand why people have joined Reform, but I say if you want change in Britain, you need to join the Conservative Party, because we will be the ones who hopefully will form the next government.”

He added: “I think when we we’re able to articulate our policy platform, it resonates with large numbers of people across the country, including millions of people who maybe voted Reform at the last election, we need to make sure that they can come back to the Conservatives, and we want to be clear that they have a home here because we share their values.”