Reshuffles are not just about putting different faces in different jobs but about changing the message of the party – and its policy – going forward.
In this sense, there may be more to Kemi Badenoch’s reshuffle than first meets the eye – especially on Brexit.
While the headlines are focussing on the fact that the Tory leader has dumped a cautious shadow chancellor for one of the architects of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, there is arguably an even more interesting thing happening with the foreign affairs brief.
Ms Badenoch has replaced Dame Priti Patel – one of the hardest of hard Brexiteers left in the Commons – with former ultra Remainer and Brexit sceptic Tom Tugendhat as shadow foreign secretary.
It begs the question: Is Ms Badenoch going soft on Brexit? Or rather, for those who would like to see the UK rejoin the EU, is she beginning to see the light on the disaster Brexit has been over the last decade?
It is pure fantasy to think that Ms Badenoch is ever going to advocate rejoining the EU, Single Market or Customs Union. Such a move, even if she wanted to do it, would see a coup to remove her, such is the state of the current Conservative Party.
Nevertheless, the Patel for Tugendhat swap is no accident in terms of how you view the Brexit question.
Dame Priti was one of the infamous Brexit spartans who opposed every single compromise with the EU and in fact preferred a no deal Brexit.
It made her one of Boris Johnson’s most senior ministers as home secretary where, ironically, she is accused of failing Brexit supporters by allowing unprecedented levels of immigration.
Meanwhile, Mr Tugendhat was chair of the Commons foreign affairs select committee and a strong opponent of Brexit.
He later tried to distance himself from that stance when he ran to become leader but he has remained a hate figure among many Brexiteers.
What makes this more interesting is that Ms Badenoch’s own Brexit credentials have never been clear.
She voted for every compromise option put forward by Theresa May and then later Rishi Sunak. As business secretary she infuriated Brexiteers by scrapping plans to shred reams of EU red tape.
The Tory leader was only first elected in 2017 after the 2016 referendum so never had to prove as an MP during the heat of the referendum battle that she was a Brexit supporter. The suspicion is she would have supported Remain.
At a time when defence cooperation with the EU is becoming increasingly necessary and that it is obvious that trade barriers with the EU need to be removed if the British economy is to have a chance to recover then having a Remainer as shadow foreign secretary makes sense.
Of course, the Tory briefings deny any link to past Brexit affiliations, noting that Dame Priti still has a role in the made up international secretary job where she coordinates with other centre right parties around the world.
They point to Mr Tugendhat’s strong support for Israel and his leading role in taking on the threat of China as well as his military background as being the decisive factors.
Nevertheless in recent weeks, liberal Tories have been leaving the party with some heading to Labour and the Lib Dems. This sort of “Conservative wet” – as Margaret Thatcher would have called them – are the bedrock of support in strong Tory areas in the south of England and London.
Ms Badenoch’s my-way-or-the-highway approach to blocking former MPs like Penny Mordaunt from running again over not opposing net zero, or leaving the European Convention of Human Rights, has alarmed many in the party.
Mr Tugendhat now becomes a champion of that sort of moderate Conservatism in the shadow cabinet. He is not a man who is afraid to be himself and say what he thinks.
The move, though, is a brave one considering that the Conservatives are in a battle to the death with Nigel Farage and Reform UK particularly in strong pro-Brexit areas like East Anglia or Essex.
But there is some hope with this appointment that the Tories may now be willing to champion a more moderate position on European relations and the future of Brexit – even if there is no chance they will support reversing it.
