New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tells staff they can turn it around in a term

Kemi Badenoch is understood to have told Conservative Party staff that they can turn their fortunes around in one political term, as she gets under way as leader.

Ms Badenoch has been at the party’s headquarters in Westminster on Monday morning as she is in the process of deciding who will be in her top team.

In an address to CCHQ staff on Monday morning, it is thought Ms Badenoch said the first challenge for the party will be winning back council seats at local elections.

She is also understood to have said the party can turn their situation around in one term and that policy will come soon, but the party needs to start with principles such as freedom of speech and personal responsibility.

Ms Badenoch is set to name her shadow cabinet team ahead of their first meeting on Tuesday.

It was reported on Sunday that Essex MP Dame Rebecca Harris would become the party’s new chief whip while Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson have been made joint chairmen.

It is understood she told staff on Monday that Mr Huddleston and Lord Johnson have been appointed due to their broad experience in the party.

Other figures that are thought to be in contention for top jobs include former Treasury minister Andrew Griffith, who has been reported to be in line for the shadow chancellor job.

Other potential frontbenchers include former energy security secretary Claire Coutinho and interim shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez.

The anticipated announcement of the new shadow cabinet follows Ms Badenoch’s victory over former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in the Tory leadership race on Saturday.

In her first media appearance since that victory, she told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that she would tell “hard truths” to the country and her party.

She drew criticism for suggesting the so-called partygate scandal that saw Boris Johnson fined for breaking lockdown rules had been “overblown”.