Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has ruthlessly sacked her shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride and replaced him with the more rightwing Andrew Griffith.
The move comes as the Conservative leader embarks on her first major reshuffle of her top team amid concerns that 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, comes after she sacked Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary and replaced her with former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
open image in galleryShadow 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 stead 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.
open image in galleryWhen 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 Andy 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.”