Former British Indian home secretary Priti Patel is among the shadow foreign secretaries selected by newly elected Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch to form her top team on Opposition benches in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Priti Patel, who hails from Gujarat origin, is 52-year-old. She was an early contender who went up against each other in the tussle to replace Rishi Sunak as the new Tory chief and the Leader of the Opposition.
With two other claimants in the running, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride were appointed as shadow justice secretary and shadow chancellor, respectively, as the choices made by Badenoch for her frontbench are seen as an effort to heal a divided Conservative Party.
Congratulations to Kemi Badenoch on her election as leader of our great Party," posted Patel on X over the weekend after the election result was declared.
She ended by saying: "Let's all unite behind her to renew and earn back the trust of the British people. I look forward to supporting her in holding this dishonest and self-serving Labour government to account and in putting forward a Conservative vision for the future of our great county.".
Patel, who was handed a Damehood in ex-prime minister Boris Johnson's resignation honours, has sat on the Tory backbenches since the latter's exit from 10 Downing Street in 2022.
She is due to face Labour's Foreign Secretary David Lammy as her opponent in parliamentary tussles.
Meanwhile Badenoch is finalising her shadow cabinet starting with Laura Trott as shadow education secretary to respond to the government's announcement of a rise in university tuition fees from – up GBP 285 from the frozen maximum of GBP 9,250 to hit GBP 9.535 a year.
This move will not affect international student fees, at least not yet, since Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson informed MPs on Monday that the government had to "take the tough decisions needed to put universities on a firmer financial footing.".
In her first reaction as the new shadow minister, Trott branded the tuition fee increase "a hike in the effective tax graduates have to pay." With the Tories down to just 121 members of Parliament, Badenoch will have to hand multiple shadow briefs to some of her picks as many senior Tories have declined frontbench jobs as she prepares to chair her first shadow cabinet meeting as Opposition leader.
Read also| Canadian Hindus Rally Against Khalistani Extremist Attacks on Temples in Canada
