Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has ruthlessly sacked her shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride and replaced him with one of the architects of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget
New shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith was financial secretary to the Treasury – number three in the department – when Ms Truss’s mini-Budget caused a run on the gilt market and almost bankrupted the country.
He was a strong advocate of the former prime minister’s plans to slash taxes and his appointment appears to be an indication that Ms Badenoch wants the party to take a more aggressive direction after the cautious approach of Sir Mel.
The Tory leader has consistently refused to apologise for the Truss mini-Budget or throw the former PM out of the party.
Now she has put one of her key lieutenants and supporter of the hardcore tax-cutting approach in charge of economic policy as she tries to take on Nigel Farage and Reform.
In a hint that he still supports the Truss approach to the country’s finances, Mr Griffiths pointedly tweeted: “The Conservatives will always back the risk-takers and wealth creators who deliver growth, investment and jobs.”
He tweeted: “It is a huge honour to become shadow chancellor for the party I joined as a teenager under Margaret Thatcher. Working as a team, we Conservatives will deliver an economic revolution.
“We will deliver lower, simpler taxes, get Britain drilling again to bring down energy costs, slash the red tape holding Britain back, and scrap the job-killing measures in Labour’s (Un)Employment Rights Act.”
Lib Dem deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Griffith helped deliver the Truss mini-budget that sent mortgages soaring &the economy into turmoil.
It’s clear Conservatives haven’t learned a thing. His appointment to shadow chancellor shows they’re happy to forfeit any claim to economic credibility in their race to the bottom with Reform UK.”
Labour former Treasury minister Torsten Bell noted: “The best the Conservatives have to offer on the economy is Liz Truss’s biggest cheer leader. No learning curve at all.”
The move comes as the Conservative leader embarks on her first major reshuffle of her top team amid concerns it has been underperforming and holding the party’s recovery back.
A reshuffle had been inevitable after Sir James Cleverly resigned as shadow housing secretary to run as London mayor and with Julia Lopez shadowing the former science ministry, which has been abolished by Andy Burnham.
The decision to ditch Sir Mel, a former welfare secretary who had been a major critic of Truss’s mini-Budget, comes after she sacked Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary and replaced her with former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew has also been shown the exit door after the party made little impression in taking on Labour over its handling of the NHS.
However, after the steady hand of Sir Mel on Treasury policy, Ms Badenoch had been urged within the party to go for a bolder strategy with a new face.
This has been confirmed with the appointment of Mr Griffith, a former Sky News executive.
A senior Conservative source said: “Kemi is changing the way the Conservative Party approaches economic policy and creating a new economic leadership team for the next phase, focused on growth, higher living standards and fiscal credibility.
“The team will be led by Andrew Griffith, a no-nonsense, pro-growth shadow chancellor with real business experience.”
Claire Coutinho, who is due to go on maternity leave, will be Mr Griffith’s deputy across the economic brief, as well as shadow business secretary.
When she returns her task will be to make sure growth translates into higher living standards. Richard Fuller will be focused on fiscal discipline and the savings work which underpins the economic programme.
Ms Coutinho had impressed as shadow energy secretary and was credited in pushing Mr Burnham to look at abandoning some of former energy secretary Ed Miliband’s hard line net zero policies on blocking new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
She is likely to be replaced by Scottish MP Andrew Bowie as shadow energy secretary with rising star Harriet Cross expected to become shadow Scottish secretary.
According to the senior party source, the new Conservative Economic Unit will be the driving force of the shadow cabinet’s business and economic policies.
Sir Mel had started the party on its road to recovery and overseen introducing the policy of scrapping stamp duty. But he had generally urged caution, especially on reversing Labour controversial National Insurance hike which has caused the jobs market to dry up.
In a statement, Sir Mel said: “The Conservative party must continue to champion an approach which is both radical and deliverable. It is essential that the next Conservative government does things very differently, backing business like never before and getting government out of the way. The Conservatives have a good story to tell on this now and one that I know will continue to grow stronger and stronger under Kemi’s leadership.”
Ms Badenoch paid tribute to Sir Mel and Dame Priti in a statement
She said: “Like Priti, Mel came into the job at an exceptionally difficult point for the Conservative Party. He brought experience, seriousness and stability when those things were badly needed.
“He helped us steady the ship, rebuild economic credibility and become an effective opposition, and I am genuinely grateful for his contribution. The Conservative Party would not have got where we are without his work and his very effective skewering of Rachel Reeves and her disastrous time as chancellor.
“Mel has been very supportive of the new economic team and the party, and been exceptionally loyal, and I will always be grateful to him for the work he has done.”