Former cabinet minister Sir James Cleverly has been named shadow housing secretary in Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch’s reshuffle of her senior team.

His new appointment will see him go head-to-head with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in the House of Commons.

Announcing Sir James’s return to the front bench, Badenoch said her party was “moving into a new phase” and she wanted to make sure all her heavy hitters were on the bench.

Following his appointment Sir James said: “This Labour government is totally failing the country, and the capital, on housing – and under Kemi’s leadership, I am ready to lead the fight against this failure”.

Sir James served a number of high-profile cabinet roles during the Conservative Party’s time in office. This included stints as home secretary and foreign secretary.  He was very briefly education secretary – for two months – before being appointed to foreign secretary by the then Prime Minister Liz Truss.

He was also Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from April 2019 to July 2019.

He was first elected as the Conservative MP for Braintree in May 2015.