The new Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, has appointed her shadow cabinet today.
Alex Burghart was re-appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and newly appointed as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
When in government, his new role makes him the most senior minister in the Cabinet Office after the Prime Minister. Effectively, he is Kemi Badenoch’s deputy.
He will shadow Pat McFadden with his Cabinet Office brief, and Hilary Benn with his Northern Ireland brief.
Burghart was an early backer of Badenoch and joined the House of Commons at the same time as her in 2017.
On Friday, he defended not yet visiting Northern Ireland since being appointed.
He said: “We are in a situation following the general election where everything, including the running of Conservative Party Central Offices, is in flux, so getting the funding for trips has not been as easy as I would like.”
The MP for Brentwood and Ongar had a range of ministerial posts in previous governments, including as Boris Johnson’s Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) between 2019 and 2021.
He resigned from Boris Johnson’s government in 2022, and in a joint letter with MPs including Kemi Badenoch, said he had no faith in the Prime Minister and called for him to resign. This followed Johnson’s handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.
From 2022 until 2024, he was Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office under Rishi Sunak.
