Priti Patel returns as shadow foreign secretary under new Tory leader
Kemi Badenoch promotes the Witham MP to role as she announces her first shadow cabinet
New Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch has made Dame Priti Patel her shadow foreign secretary.
The Witham MP since 2010, had been forced to resign as international development secretary in 2017 following unauthorised meetings with Israeli officials.
But in a move clearly designed to show Badenoch’s admiration for Patel, who was also given the role of home secretary under Boris Johnson, the new Conservative leader has put her in a role in which Israel will repeatedly be at the top of her list of issues.
A prominent Brexit supporter and on the right of the party, Patel pushed the Rwanda policy while home secretary. She has also been staunch ally of the Conservative Friends of Israel group.
In November 2017, Patel was forced to quit as a minister quit after being summoned back from a trip to Uganda and Ethiopia by Downing Street after it emerged she failed to be candid with Theresa May, then PM, about 14 unofficial meetings with Israeli ministers and business people.
Patel had said in a letter that the UK and Israel were close allies and should work closely together.
Robert Jenrick, Badenoch’s rival in the leadershio contest, was made Justice Secretary while Chris Philp was appointed as home secretary.
In further appointments Laura Trott MP was made shadow education secretary, while Mel Stride was made shadow chancellor.
Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson have also been appointed as joint chairmen of the Conservative party.
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