Kemi Badenoch has carried out a reshuffle of her shadow cabinet, with Sir James Cleverly returning to the Conservative Party front bench.
The Tory leader has brought her former leadership rival back to the frontline to build party unity and bolster the partyâs credibility.
A senior Tory source said Sir James would help âtake the fight to this dreadful Labour governmentâ.
Ms Badenoch made a series of changes to her top team on Tuesday, with the source adding that they âreflect the next stage of the partyâs policy renewal programme and underline the unity of the party under new leadershipâ.
Sir James was appointed shadow housing secretary and will be Angela Raynerâs opposite number and go head to head with her in the Commons.
Despite reports that Robert Jenrick was gunning for his job, Sir Mel Stride stayed on as shadow chancellor in a blow to Ms Badenochâs other main rival for the leadership.
Ex-foreign secretary Sir James was the most high-profile name appointed to the front bench on Tuesday. Other big names from the last Conservative government, such as Suella Braverman, were not called upon by Ms Badenoch. Sir James replaced Kevin Hollinrake, who will become Conservative Party chairman.
MP Stuart Andrew moved from his role in culture to the health brief, replacing the current shadow health secretary Ed Argar. Mr Argar was the first casualty of Ms Badenochâs reshuffle, with the Tory leader thanking him for his service.
It had become a social media joke that searching Google for Ed Argar and his shadow cabinet role revealed only his appointment to the position, suggesting he had failed to cut through with the public and media.
His resignation letter, which was written on 9 July, cited an ongoing health issue after an illness last year.
A full list of changes is expected to be published on Tuesday evening.
The shadow cabinet reshuffle comes just eight months after Ms Badenoch was elected leader by Tory members and is an admission the party has been underperforming.
Even as she conducted her reshuffle, Ms Badenoch lost another defector to Nigel Farageâs Reform UK.
Laura Anne Jones, a member of the Welsh Senedd, joined the party, following in the wake of two former Tory cabinet ministers, Jake Berry and David Jones.
Amid the continued rise of Reform UK, Ms Badenochâs party has been unable to grab the agenda and get a clear message across. A spokesman for Mr Farageâs party said the reshuffle is âlike moving deckchairs on the Titanicâ.
Only a handful of her shadow cabinet ministers have been prominent publicly since joining the Tory top team, including Mr Jenrick, who has made a series of eye-catching videos exposing social problems in the UK.
After Mayâs disastrous local election results, as well as months of dire showings in the polls, Ms Badenoch hopes the reshuffle will shore up her authority ahead of the Tory conference in October.
Talk of a potential leadership challenge has been mounting, with communications consultant Guto Harri, who worked for Boris Johnson during his time in No 10, warning recently that a bid to replace her was âinevitableâ.
In January, Ms Badenochâs spokesman ruled out any reshuffle of her top team before the next general election.
A Labour source said: âAfter initially claiming her shadow Cabinet would be in place until the next election, Kemi Badenoch has already hit the panic button.
âThe Tory leader can shuffle as many deckchairs as she likes, but itâll still be the same old faces that were responsible for 14 years of failure. They crashed the economy and ran public services into the ground.
âThe Conservatives havenât changed. Itâs the same old chaos.â
Sir James served as both foreign secretary and home secretary when the Conservatives were in power.
He stood as a candidate in last year’s Conservative leadership election, but lost out on the Tory top job ahead of the final heat between Ms Badenoch and her now-shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick.
Since the leadership contest, Sir James has returned to the Tory back bench as the MP for Braintree.
He has used his influential position as a former minister to warn against pursuing a populist agenda similar to Reform UK.
Appearing at the Institute For Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank last week, the senior Tory hit out at calls to âsmash the systemâ and âstart again from scratchâ, branding them âcomplete nonsenseâ.
He also appeared to take a different position on net zero from party leader Ms Badenoch in a recent speech, urging the Conservatives to reject climate change âludditesâ on the right who believe âthe way things are now is just fineâ.
