UK politics live: Jenrick gets justice role in Badenoch’s shadow cabinet as Stride and Patel land top jobs

Kemi Badenoch is set to make a highly controversial choice in one of the most senior jobs in her shadow cabinet with Dame Priti Patel set to be unveiled as shadow foreign secretary.

However, sources close to the new Tory leader have told The Independent that she has “no concerns” over Dame Priti being previously sacked as a cabinet minister for unauthorised meetings in Israel.

Dame Priti was sacked in November 2017 as international development secretary by Theresa May when it emerged she had held unauthorised meetings in Israel.

Read the full report by the Independent’s political editor, David Maddox:

Here is a list of all the shadow cabinet appointments which Kemi Badenoch has made so far today:

Robert Jenrick: Kemi Badenoch’s rival for the Tory leadership becomes shadow justice secretary.

Priti Patel: The former home secretary will now become the shadow foreign secretary.

Mel Stride: Another rival to Ms Badenoch for the Tory leadership, Mr Stride is seen as more moderate than his new boss.

Laura Trott: An ally of Ms Badenoch, Ms Trott has been named education secretary.

Neil O’Brien: Mr O’Brien backed Mr Jenrick in the leadership campaign. He becomes shadow minister for education.

Nigel Huddleston and Dominic Johnson: Both junior minister under Rishi Sunak, they have been appointed joint chairmen of the Conservative Party.

Dame Rebecca Harris: The Essex MP will become chief whip.

Ministers have been warned that they face a “militant” backlash from farmers over the so-called tractor tax of imposing inheritance death duties on family farms worth more than £1m.

The warning came from National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw as he met with environment secretary Steve Reed over the shock measure in the Budget, while a protest has been planned for 19 November when angry farmers are set to descend on London.

The row over inheritance tax changes came on top of a lack of extra funds for farming in Rachel Reeves’ announcements last week coupled with extra costs through increases in national insurance for employers and a 6.7 per cent rise in the minimum wage.

The Independent’s Political Editor David Maddox reports:

Schools will receive national-level compensation for the national insurance rise for employers, educatio secretary Bridget Phillipson has confirmed.

She told the Commons: “What I can say is that where it comes to schools and colleges, they will be compensated at a national level.

“What I would however just point out to [new Tory shadow education minister Neil O’Brien] is that when I became Secretary of State in July, I was presented with the Teachers’ Pay Review Body award – 5.5 per cent – that the last government received, put in a drawer, ran away and called an election.

“We have backed our teachers who are crucial to the life chances of our children, and that’s why I was delighted that we were able to honour that award and recognise the vital contribution our teachers make.

“And that’s how we will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers. If they are refusing to back our commitments on VAT, then they should set out how many teachers they intend to cut.”

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Kemi Badenoch following her election as Conservative Party leader.

The PM’s official spokesperson confirmed on Monday that the pair had spoken over the phone since Saturday’s announcement.

Conservative leadership race finalist Robert Jenrick has been named the shadow justice secretary in Kemi Badenoch’s brand new shadow cabinet, according to reports.

Mr Jenrick accepted the role after Ms Badenoch offered it following the long leadership selection process, which ended on Saturday, Steven Swinford of The Times reports.

According to Mr Swinford, an ally of Mr Jenrick said he is “eager to expose Labour’s dreadful record on law and order”.

The new shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, has spoke in her new role for the first time.

Labour has “declared war” on students, Ms Trott warned.

In response to the tuition fee hike announced earlier, Ms Trott told the Commons: “We had a Budget last week which declared war on business, private-sector workers and farmers. It seems today that the secretary of state [Bridget Phillipson] wants to add students to that list.

“Not content with pushing up the cost of living for everyone with an inflationary Budget and pushing down wages with the national insurance increase, we are now in a situation whereby students will suffer from the first inflationary increase in a number of years at a time when students can least afford it.

“And yet again, there was no sign of this in the Labour manifesto.”

Universities UK (UUK), which represents 140 institutions around the country, has called the increase in tuition fees “the right thing to do”.

UUK chief executive Vivienne Stern said: “Thriving universities are essential to a thriving UK, delivering stronger growth, better public services and improving individual life chances.

“University leaders and government must work together to ensure that our universities are able to fire on all cylinders.

“A decade-long freeze in England has seen inflation erode the real value of student fees and maintenance loans by around a third, which is completely unsustainable for both students and universities.”

The University and College Union (UCU) says the Labour government’s tuition fee increase is “economically and morally wrong”.

General secretary Jo Grady said: “Taking more money from debt ridden students and handing it to overpaid, underperforming vice-chancellors is ill-conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.

“As Keir Starmer himself said last year, the current fees system doesn’t work for students and doesn’t work for universities.

“The model is broken; it has saddled students with decades of debt, turned universities from sites of learning into corporations obsessed with generating revenue, and continually degraded staff pay and working conditions.”