A WORCESTERSHIRE MP has been hand-picked for a leading role in the shadow cabinet.
Kemi Badenoch has announced that Droitwich and Evesham MP Nigel Huddleston has joined her shadow cabinet as the chairman of the Conservative Party.
Huddleston will share the role with Lord Johnson of Lainston, who had been deputy chairman of the party from 2016 to 2019.
The new leader of the opposition told Tory staff the two men were chosen because of their broad experience within the party, PA has reported.
Despite coming from a more moderate branch of the party, Mr Huddleston supported Ms Badenoch in her leadership campaign, which she won on Saturday (November 2).
Mr Huddleston was elected to parliament in the 2015 General Election, replacing Sir Peter Luff, who stepped down prior to the election.
Since then, the member of Parliament has held several positions under the Johnson, Truss and Sunak governments, including lord commissioner of the Treasury, financial secretary to the Treasury and minister of state for international trade.
The position of chairman has been held by several MPs who have gone on to hold significant positions in the Government such as Theresa May, Grant Shapps, Jams Cleverly and Oliver Dowden.
Mr Huddleston was on the morning media round on Tuesday (November 5), where he told LBC that he needs to rebuild the party's membership after Reform UK reported having 95,000 members, while the Tories had just 131,680 members according to the leadership election results.
He said: "One of my roles is to grow the membership base, and I understand why people have joined Reform, but I say if you want a change in Britain, you need to join the Conservative Party, because we will be the ones who hopefully will form the next Government.
"I think when we are able to articulate our policy platform, it resonates with large numbers of people across the country, including millions of people who maybe voted Reform at the last election.
"We need to make sure that they come back to the Conservatives, and we want to be clear that they have a home here because we share their values."
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