Badenoch appoints architect of Truss’s mini-Budget to replace Mel Stride as shadow chancellor

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.

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.

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 will be Mr Griffith's deputy across the economic brief, as well as shadow business secretary, and will 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.

The new Conservative Economic Unit will be the driving force of the shadow cabinet’s business and economic policies.

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.”