"David Cameron has today made changes to his Shadow Cabinet, promoting new talent, strengthening the campaigning ability of the Party and appointing a new Shadow Security Minister and National Security Adviser to the Leader of the Opposition.
Three MPs from the 2005 intake enter the Shadow Cabinet. Nick Herbert becomes Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, Jeremy Hunt becomes Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Michael Gove becomes Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. David Willetts will become the new Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
In other appointments, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones has been appointed Shadow Security Minister in the Shadow Cabinet and National Security Adviser to David Cameron. Sayeeda Warsi enters the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion.
Following an invitation from the Prime Minister to nominate candidates for life peerages, David Cameron has put forward Dame Pauline Neville-Jones and Sayeeda Warsi for consideration by the House of Lords Appointments Commission and, in due course, for onward recommendation to Her Majesty The Queen at the appropriate time.
Caroline Spelman becomes Party Chairman. Eric Pickles joins the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. Francis Maude takes over the role of Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office in the Shadow Cabinet, looking at the implementation of our programme for government.
George Osborne takes on the additional role of General Election Campaign Coordinator in addition to his responsibilities as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.
David Cameron said:
“These changes strengthen the Shadow Cabinet team and harness new talent within the Party as we prepare for the next General Election.
“Two of the big challenges facing this country today are security and community cohesion and we now have two leading experts in these fields in Dame Pauline Neville-Jones and Sayeeda Warsi.”
The full Shadow Cabinet after the re-shuffle is:
David Cameron
Leader of the Conservative PartyWilliam Hague
Shadow Foreign SecretaryGeorge Osborne
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
General Election Campaign CoordinatorDavid Davis
Shadow Home SecretaryLiam Fox
Shadow Secretary of State for DefenceLord Strathclyde
Leader of the Opposition in the House of LordsCaroline Spelman
Chairman of the Conservative PartyPhilip Hammond
Shadow Chief Secretary to the TreasuryFrancis Maude
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of LancasterAndrew Lansley
Shadow Secretary of State for HealthDavid Willetts
Shadow Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and SkillsPeter Ainsworth
Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsAndrew Mitchell
Shadow Secretary of State for International DevelopmentAlan Duncan
Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory reformTheresa May
Shadow Leader of the House of CommonsOliver Letwin
Chairman of the Policy Review and Chairman of the Conservative Research DepartmentChris Grayling
Shadow Secretary of State for Work and PensionsCheryl Gillan
Shadow Secretary of State for WalesDavid Mundell
Shadow Secretary of State for ScotlandTheresa Villiers
Shadow Secretary of State for TransportDame Pauline Neville-Jones
Shadow Security Minister and National Security Adviser to the Leader of the OppositionEric Pickles
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local GovernmentMichael Gove
Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and FamiliesSayeeda Warsi
Shadow Minister for Community CohesionNick Herbert
Shadow Secretary of State for JusticeOwen Paterson
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern IrelandJeremy Hunt
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and SportPatrick McLoughlin
Opposition Chief Whip
Baroness Anelay of St Johns will replace Lord Cope of Berkeley as Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords when he retires on the 27th July 2007
Attending Shadow Cabinet:
Grant Shapps – Shadow Housing Minister
David Lidington – Shadow Foreign Office Minister."
Same old same old. Cameron should have taken the opportunity for a full-scale clearout and promoted thrusting young bucks in their stead.
Posted by: houndtang | July 02, 2007 at 20:00
Oh Dear. It looks like Sayeeda has given up hope of ever becoming an MP.
I was never impressed by her. Her communication skills left much to be desired, and intellectually she came across as average at best. Perhaps it's just me.
Not that there's anything wrong with her being in the HoL per se, it's just that she seems too .... ORDINARY.
Posted by: torylady | July 02, 2007 at 20:06
How is it 'same old same old', to me hes got it exactly right, youth and experience. Great new team to take on GB!!!
Posted by: michael | July 02, 2007 at 20:06
Too many southerners.
We should have had more token notherners.
Posted by: 601 | July 02, 2007 at 20:08
dissagree there too, Sayeeda, comes across really well on question time, better than most, because she answers the question!
Posted by: michael | July 02, 2007 at 20:10
"How is it 'same old same old', to me hes got it exactly right, youth and experience. Great new team to take on GB!!!"
Looks like they're working late at CCHQ.
Posted by: Downsize the NHS | July 02, 2007 at 20:12
Good stuff DC.
Very pleased for the very energetic Grant Shapps.
Posted by: Geoffrey G Brooking | July 02, 2007 at 20:16
Disappointed to see Oliver Heald go - he's been great in his role as Shadow Minister for Sheffield, putting loads of effort in (in a fairly unrewarding hunting ground for us!)
But on the whole it seems like a good rejig - delighted to see Nick Herbert promoted.
Posted by: Robert McIlveen | July 02, 2007 at 20:23
Off the top of my head; Hague, Davis, Pickles, Warsi, Mundell, Fox and Paterson are all from "the North". Not too bad I'd say.
Not a bad reshuffle I'd say. Demoting Swire was a very wise move and there have been a few good promotions. I think it's also wise not to have made too drastic a re-shuffle. We have quite high profile people in the top 5, all of whom can be big figures at the election with good experience. No point in changing everyone just because Brown wants a cabinet full of light-weights.
Posted by: Michael Rutherford | July 02, 2007 at 20:27
A pity they didn't get rid of Theresa May
Posted by: Downsize the NHS | July 02, 2007 at 20:33
The promotions of Gove, Herbert, Shapps
and Hunt are well deserved. Grieve should have been promoted too.
Maude, May, Willetts, Ainsworth and Villiers were lucky to survive. Swire and the charmless Heald deserved the sack. The useless Mundell, despised in Scotland by MSPs and activists, should have been sacked too.
I have posted about Warsi's homophobia in the main reshuffle thread. Putting Osborne in charge of election strategy is a kamikaze mistake of enormous proportions.
Cameron has wasted an excellent opportunity to get rid of poor performers and promote more new talent.
Posted by: TFA Tory | July 02, 2007 at 20:40
Pity the Welsh secretary is still not a member representing a Welsh constituency. Stephen Crabb is good orater, and I think we would do much better in Wales, which is now more Conservative than Scotland, if the shadow secretary were actually representing part of Wales.
Posted by: Sasha | July 02, 2007 at 20:42
Nothing special from Cameron here. Would have been nice if he'd got rid of Theresa May and demoted Osborne but never mind. But I think he'll need bigger changes than that to win an election.
Posted by: Colin Debonham | July 02, 2007 at 20:43
Oh dear me.... Whose been advising Cameron on this 'Reshuffle'? Someone wake me up when Cameron gets a hold of politics and gets his head sorted out.... National Security Advisor.... and people excused Blair of trying to be Presidential!!
Posted by: SCE | July 02, 2007 at 21:14
What a non-event, a missed opportunity to shuffle an umpressive hand of cards. I am sure this will have the government quaking in its boots! Apart from Westminster/CCHQ folk most people say what opposition?! I look forward to the new team improving on what has been a lacklustre performance to date.
Posted by: Robert Winterton | July 02, 2007 at 21:30
Good idea to keep people in the tent. Quite enough diviseness recently.
When Brown and this government lose the next election (in October?) we must be seen as a united party or we will not get all the votes we need to get our majority. Voters do not trust a party which is divided.
How about some of that loyalty for which we used to be famous? Only a third of us did not vote for our leader - but TWICE as many DID - so he is entitled to expect our support.
Constructive criticism and suggestions are fair enough, but our chances would surely improve if some "contributors" to our cause could resist pressing the self destruct button quite so often.
I have nothing whatsoever to do with CCHQ (and I have my own reservations about some of our party organisers) before anyone feels like firing off a cheap shot.
Posted by: Eric B-P | July 02, 2007 at 21:35
I'm pleased to see Philip Hammond replace Theresa Villiers as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. His strong background in economics makes him appear more suited to the role.
Posted by: Mark Fulford | July 02, 2007 at 21:51
"How about some of that loyalty for which we used to be famous?"
Like that shown to successful and experienced candidates who have been knifed and replaced by A list failures, newbies and defectors.
Posted by: TFA Tory | July 02, 2007 at 22:17
A fairly good shuffle in my opinion. Very glad to see Willets getting a put down, but there are some good characters that have been overlooked.
Pleased to see Maude ousted however i feel the juries still out on his replacement.
Posted by: Blaise Matthews | July 02, 2007 at 22:24
I too think we should be very pleased by parts of this reshuffle, and slightly underwhelmed by others. Whilst I would share Tim's enthusiasm for a switch between Osborne and Hague, I suspect he knows as well as I do that that was never a realistic prospect [and probably with good electoral reason].
Nick Herbert is incredibly impressive, and I'm delighted to see him promoted to what I think is an ideal job. Justice is an intellectually demanding brief where he can afford to let his true libertarian brain loose without offending the more small-c-conservative wing of the party. He'll be great alongside DD on ID cards, detention without charge, etc etc. I'm sad to see Maude replaced by Spelman - for all the noise that is made about his "moderniser" political credentials, his job has been about management, and in that he has scored some notable successes - some of the structural improvements he has made will only pay real dividends later, but he can take pride in those. A bit longer to steady the ship before we take on a "celebrity" chairman for the election would have been great. Spelman is competent for sure, but perhaps a bit too "right-on" for this job? I look forward to being disabused...
I'm happy to see DC chose to leave the top tier largely alone, but I really think Alan Duncan's time has come - I'd hoped for a bigger job for him. He's one of the front bench's best communicators, and we need that right now. I also agree that Grieve more than deserves a promotion, but can see the temptation to leave him where he is simply because he is so very good at shadowing the AG. And now, with the apocalyptically dreadful Baroness Scotland in his sights, he should be able to have some fun for a while.
And nothing for Vaizey, but Shapps attending cabinet? Please...
Posted by: BorisforPM | July 02, 2007 at 22:30
What has happened to Boris, BorisforPM? David W seems to have nicked his brief!
Posted by: Editor | July 02, 2007 at 22:35
Well, Ed, I did wonder quite what had happened to the Flaxen-Haired One. Some sort of campaigning role is my [totally uninformed and speculative] guess. I thought as a crazy wild-card entry for Chairman he had his merits [not sure I'd have picked him, but considered him at least]. Whilst Willetts has indeed been rightly bumped-down, I think that his new role should really have been Boris's. The HE sector is a naturally comfortable home for an essentially very clever oddball, and he'd made some very good headway in the last little while.
I'll wait with interest for his name in tomorrow's junior appointments - where would your money be, Ed?
Posted by: BorisforPM | July 02, 2007 at 22:44
I think he'll probably stay where he is... but reporting to DW. We'll soon know...
Posted by: Editor | July 02, 2007 at 22:54
Very good reshuffle. Some great talent coming through - Nick Herbert, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove. Delighted to see George Osborne as General Election Supremo - George is an extremely strong tactical thinker. Now we've just got to get some convincing and coherent policies in place.
Posted by: Happy Tory | July 02, 2007 at 23:35
Syeda Warsi, She can not win her home constituency, Labour has promoted Shahid Malik as Junior Minister and in return Tories have promoted her.
Does ahe have any inflluence among Pakistani community, I do not think so.
Shahid Malik is more effective among Pakistani community, she can only ask her immediate family memebers to vote for Tory.
She is a loser. I do not know why she is not standing again in her home constituency against Shahid Malik. She knows he is very influential among Pakistanis.
Posted by: Ammy | July 03, 2007 at 01:01
I'm sure that all readers will be eually repelled by Ammy's vile personal attack on Sayeeda Warsi. I don't know what Ammy has got against her, but it's clear from his/her post that they are nothing more than one of Labour's apologists/campaign assistant to Shahid Malik who still feels it necessary to write such a nasty attack on her.
Posted by: Shaun Bennett | July 03, 2007 at 01:06
My, my... what a lot of labour members there are writing comments on this site ? They must be worried....
Posted by: Paul Smith | July 03, 2007 at 01:34
Delighted to see Shapps given a sensible brief. He is one to look out for... an effective communicator and excellent constituency MP. We need more like him. Wide business experience before he became an MP, excellent choice Dave.
Will he still be VC in charge campaigning though?
Posted by: Oddball | July 03, 2007 at 02:08
Syeda Warsi - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! LMAO - proof that you can con some people for several years!!
Posted by: SebastianD | July 03, 2007 at 16:06