Saffron Walden MP Kemi Badenoch has been named as the new Secretary of State for Business and Trade during Tuesday’s (Feb 7) Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The 43-year-old Conservative takes over from Hertfordshire’s Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps as Mr Sunak creates four new Government departments.
Mrs Badenoch, who has served Uttlesford at Westminster since 2017, was previously International Trade Secretary. She remains president of the Board of Trade and minister for women and equalities, alongside her role heading the new Department of Business and Trade.
The new role continues her rapid political ascent. She was given the international trade brief by Mr Sunak’s short-lived predecessor Liz Truss.
Mrs Badenoch previously served as minister of state for local government, faith and communities and as minister of state for equalities from 2021 to 2022.
Last summer she stood against both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss to succeed Boris Johnson as the Tory party leader. She was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, securing impressive grass-roots support from the party faithful during her campaign.
She was also one of the ministers who resigned en masse and forced Mr Johnson’s decision to step down in July 2022 in the wake of Partygate and the Chris Pincher scandal.
Mrs Badenoch, a computer systems engineering graduate from Wimbledon in south-west London, spent part of her childhood in the USA and Lagos, Nigeria. She worked as a software engineer and systems analyst before becoming an associate director at Coutts and director of The Spectator magazine.
The married mother of three was a member of the London Assembly before succeeding Sir Alan Haselhurst, now life peer Baron Haselhurst of Saffron Walden.
As part of today’s reshuffle, former Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary Mr Shapps takes the lead at a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
The new Department of Science, Innovation and Technology brief goes to Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan, the former culture secretary.
South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer will take over from Ms Donelan as the new Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. She was minister of state in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from last October.
Mr Sunak has made Chelsea and Fulham MP Greg Hands the new Conservative Party chairman, replacing disgraced Nadhim Zahawi. Mr Hands also becomes minister without portfolio at the Cabinet Office.
