How many members of the shadow cabinet can you name?
It’s a game even Westminster journalists are known to play.
For a party that was hammered in last year’s general election and scythed down in size to just 120 MPs, rebuilding a public presence and getting a hearing from voters was never going to be an easy task for the Conservative Party.
But eight months into her tenure as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has decided it’s time to make some modest changes to her shadow cabinet and refresh her top team.
Why now?
Well, it was widely thought that Edward Argar was anxious to step down from his role as shadow health secretary because of recent illness and that departure was confirmed this morning.
It’s an important brief that required a new appointment.
But Badenoch has chosen to use this moment, just before MPs leave Westminster for the summer recess, to bring some fresh heft to her top team.
The most eye-catching appointment is Sir James Cleverly’s return to the Tory front bench.
He recently made a speech warning the Conservatives against trying to ape the policies of Reform UK.
In the Conservative party Sir James is considered a strong communicator and he will now have the role of shadowing the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner.
She’s the deputy prime minister too and Sir James’s appointment shows the importance Badenoch places on shadowing the major housing brief and taking on Rayner in the Commons.
Compared to some on the Tory front bench, he is a centrist Conservative, sceptical about the arguments for leaving the European Convention of on Human Rights.
That’s an issue that splits opinion in the Tory party and is currently the focus of an internal review. James Cleverly’s voice in that debate will now carry more weight.
Other expected changes include Kevin Hollinrake becoming Conservative Party chairman and Stuart Andrew taking on the shadow health brief.
There may be more, but this looks set to be a limited shake-up.
Mel Stride will remain shadow chancellor and Robert Jenrick, the runner-up in last year’s Tory leadership, contest will stay as shadow justice secretary.
Jenrick has proved adept at making a splash on social media – including running after fare-dodging Tube travellers – and some have wondered whether he has ever really stopped campaigning for the party leadership.
Badenoch has repeatedly shrugged off questions from reporters about whether he is still after her job.
Asked in April, if she should rein Jenrick in for writing articles and making speeches that went beyond his brief, she said it was “fine” for shadow cabinet members “to talk about things that are in the advancement of the Conservative Party”.
With her party currently third, or even fourth, in the national opinion polls, it needs all the attention it can get.
And – as he showed at last year’s Tory conference when his pitch for the leadership wowed the party faithful – Sir James is capable of grabbing headlines.
A few stories at this year’s conference about her former leadership rivals seeking to upstage her may be the price Badenoch has to pay for getting her party noticed.
