New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has certainly had plenty of time to decide who she wants serving alongside her in the shadow cabinet.
Her election on Saturday came four months after her predecessor Rishi Sunak announced he was going to step down, having led the party to the worst defeat in its history.
Badenoch now has the unenviable task of rebuilding the Tories into a formidable political machine once again – all while facing a Labour Party with a spectacular majority in the House of Commons.
To help her with that task, she’ll need a top team assembled from the 121 Conservative MPs.
It’s not a particularly large pool, especially compared to previous leaders: Boris Johnson had more than three times as many people to choose from following his landslide at the 2019 General Election.
To illustrate the size of the challenge further, there are 124 posts in the Labour government with 111 ministers filling them. (Some do more than one job.)
If Badenoch wanted to choose MPs to oppose every one of them, it would mean assigning positions to almost everyone elected for the Tories in July – though of course, she’s got her pick of the House of Lords too.
She will meet with her shadow cabinet for the first time tomorrow, so all will be announced by then.
But so far, only a few of the figures in her top team have been confirmed.
Chief whip: Dame Rebecca Harris
Rebecca Harris will replace Stuart Andrew as the Conservative chief whip, ensuring discipline among the ranks of Tory MPs on important votes.
She’s the MP for Castle Point in Essex, a short distance from Badenoch’s own North West Essex constituency.
It makes sense that the chief whip is the first position appointed: Parliament is still in term with some key votes coming up – including motions on the Budget in two days’ time.
Harris, who was first elected in 2010, is also said to be helping Badenoch out with her picks for the rest of the cabinet. As the whip, she’ll know the good and bad points of every option.
Party chairmen: Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson
Two men will reportedly replace Richard Fuller as Chairman of the Conservative Party.
Nigel Huddleston is the MP for Droitwich and Evesham, and Dominic Johnson is a banker who sits in the House of Lords as the Lord Johnson of Lainston.
The chairmen have responsibility for overseeing the party machinery, including how the party’s election candidates are selected.
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