James Cleverly will return to the Conservative frontbench as the new shadow housing secretary, facing off against Angela Rayner, as part of a reshuffle of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet.
Badenoch has kept much of her top team in place, including the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, the shadow home secretary, Robert Jenrick, and the shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, despite grumbling from some backbenchers who would like to see promotions for some new-generation Conservative MPs.
Richard Holden, the party’s former chair who came under fire for switching seats at the last election, will also return to the shadow cabinet with the transport brief. Also promoted is Neil O’Brien, the former levelling up minister, who will attend shadow cabinet with the brief of policy development.
A Tory source said the wider changes “reflect the next stage of the party’s policy renewal programme and underline the unity of the party under new leadership”.
A number of shadow ministers have been moved from their roles or demoted. The former health minister Edward Argar has stepped down as shadow health secretary, which he said was on the advice of his doctors after a “health scare” earlier this summer.
In his letter to Badenoch, posted on X, Argar said that after a health incident this summer, another issue had been discovered, and that he would step down from his role to focus fully on his health. Badenoch replied saying she was “saddened” at the news.
He will be replaced by Stuart Andrew, a former minister who had been shadow culture.
Two other shadow ministers have been demoted: the shadow technology secretary, Alan Mak, is sent to the backbenches, replaced by Julia Lopez, and Gareth Bacon, the former shadow transport secretary, will be demoted to shadow London minister.
Kevin Hollinrake, who had been the shadow housing and communities secretary, will become the party chair. He takes over from Nigel Huddleston, who will be the new shadow culture secretary.
Lee Rowley will be stepping back from his position as chief of staff. After getting Badenoch’s leadership team started, Rowley will be returning to the private sector. Henry Newman will take over as chief of staff, and Lee will support the team transition until the end of October.
Francis Maude will join the leader of the opposition’s team as an adviser on a pro-bono basis. He will occasionally attend shadow cabinet and sit on the policy oversight committee.
Cleverly, who also served as foreign secretary, had returned to the backbenches after losing the leadership contest in the final round of MPs’ votes, meaning Badenoch faced Robert Jenrick in the members’ vote. Jenrick, who is still ambitious for the leadership, has maintained a prominent public profile as the shadow justice secretary.
In a speech last week, Cleverly warned the Conservatives against pursuing a populist agenda that would try to ape Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
He also discounted the idea that he hoped to replace Badenoch, saying his party had to “get out of this habit of cycling through leaders in the hope that ditching this one and picking a new one will make life easy for us”.
Cleverly had been touted to run as the Tory candidate for mayor of London – and would not be drawn on his future ambitions when he gave the speech last week. He received a knighthood in April last year as part of Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list.
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In a signal that Cleverly is mulling a tilt at the mayoralty in 2028, his first act as shadow housing secretary was an attack on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, over his housing record.
Cleverly highlighted statistics showing low levels of housebuilding in the capital, suggesting only 1,210 homes have started in London in the first quarter of 2025.
“This Labour government is totally failing the country, and the capital, on housing – and under Kemi’s leadership, I am ready to lead the fight against this failure,” he said.
“Cancelling the London Plan review, cutting housing targets in our capital, using precious stock to house asylum seekers, and housing starts falling to record levels – a stark contrast to the 1m homes the last Conservative government delivered across England in the last parliament alone.
“Only the Conservatives are serious about delivering the homes this country needs, in the places they are needed.”
The Labour chair, Ellie Reeves, said that the reshuffled shadow cabinet still contained many failed ministers from the previous government.
“No amount of deckchair shuffling can hide that the architects of 14 years of Tory failure still sit around Kemi Badenoch’s top table,” she said.
“The Conservatives haven’t changed and they haven’t once apologised for the mess they left behind. Only Labour is focused on delivering a fairer Britain.”