Kemi Badenoch tells her new Tory cabinet to 'take the fight to Labour'

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch last night told her new shadow cabinet to take the fight to Labour, as she prepared for her first Commons clash with Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon.

She said it was time to ‘get to work holding Labour to account’ following a four-month leadership contest which has focused on the future direction of the Conservative Party.

Allies said she would rely on her ‘Tory principles’ when she takes on Sir Keir for the first time at Prime Minister’s Questions today. She completed her senior team yesterday with the appointment of former policing minister Chris Philp as shadow home secretary.

In a statement, Mr Philp accused Labour of being ‘soft on crime and on criminals’ and called for a tougher approach to immigration.

‘We need to very substantially reduce legal migration, aim to end illegal entry to the UK and remove those with no right to be here – especially criminals,’ he said. ‘Nothing can be allowed to stand in the way of this critical mission.’

Other senior figures also heeded Mrs Badenoch’s instruction to challenge Labour, with shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho launching an excoriating attack on Ed Miliband’s ‘wildly optimistic’ bid to decarbonise the electricity grid by 2030, which she said risked higher bills and energy shortages.

New shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins said Labour’s ‘Budget of broken promises will hurt rural and coastal Britain and has shown that Labour does not understand the pressures we face’.

And Mrs Badenoch’s former leadership rival Robert Jenrick started his role as shadow justice secretary by demanding an apology from Labour for releasing prisoners early, adding: ‘The only group this Labour Government’s popularity has increased with is criminals.’

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: ‘Britain’s businesses need a government that has their backs, not one that brings them down. Rather than cutting red tape, this Government has decided to burden businesses and treat them like cash cows.’

New shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon added: ‘Labour’s plans, whether it’s renationalising our railways... or hammering motorists with needless taxes such as Ulez... are poor.’

Mrs Badenoch said her team ‘draws on the talents of people from across the Conservative Party, based on meritocracy’.

She added: ‘Our party’s problems will only be solved with a team effort, and I am confident my shadow cabinet ministers will deliver effective opposition as

we seek to win back the trust of the public. We will now get to work holding Labour to account and rebuilding our party based on Conservative principles and values. The process of renewing our great party has now begun.’

Her cabinet contains only two of Mr Jenrick’s supporters – Ms Atkins and the new shadow health secretary Edward Argar.

But allies of the new Tory leader strongly denied suggestions that she had packed her top team with her own backers, pointing out that neither the shadow chancellor Mel Stride, nor the shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel, had publicly backed her.

Mrs Badenoch told Tory officials that she could ‘turn this around in one term’ and win the next election. But Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned the shadow cabinet to brace themselves for ‘a slog’.

Sir Iain, a supporter of Mrs Badenoch who gave a presentation at yesterday’s meeting, told the Mail: ‘It is grinding hard work in opposition – you just have to keep going and grab your moments when they come.

‘A lot of these people have been ministers but they will no longer have the fleets of civil servants they used to rely on.