First Tory shadow cabinet meeting leaks: Party must ‘rediscover discipline’ top Tory tells The News Agents

In brief...

• Details of the Conservatives' first shadow cabinet meeting has leaked to the press.
• Shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell believes the Conservative Party's failure in the election was due to the perceived lack of public service ethos over the past five years.
• Mitchell advises the opposition to take time in choosing Sunak's successor.

Shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell has called a leak of Rishi Sunak's first shadow cabinet meeting a "reprehensible act" and called for the person who shared a recording to apologise.

Mitchell became Shadow foreign secretary this week when former Shadow Foreign Secretary David Cameron resigned from government, following the Conservatives' election defeat and move to the opposition.

But, after the shadow cabinet met on Tuesday, a recording of the meeting – which included attacks on Sunak from new shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch – was leaked to the press, as reported by The Times.

What Badenoch reportedly said:

• She said the surprise calling of the election in May bordered on being "unconstitutional".
• Referred to Craig Williams, who was informed early about election plans before placing a bet on the date "a buffoon".
• Claimed Sunak's "disastrous" decision to leave D-Day celebrations in Normandy early was to blame for MPs such as Penny Mordaunt losing their seats.
• Accused Suella Braverman of having a "very public” nervous breakdown following the election results.
• Said some Tory colleagues hadn’t addressed the "enormity" of what the election loss meant to the party.

Mitchell tells The News Agents that leaking a recording of the meeting, which he attended, is a "corrosive" act.

"I absolutely deplore leaking of shadow cabinet meetings," he says in a new interview with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel.

"I don't know who leaked it, but it is a broadly accurate account.

"If the Tory party has to have any chance at all, we've got to rediscover the discipline that is required to be an effective operation in the House of Commons, whether you're in government or in opposition, and leaking like that is corrosive, unnecessary and deplorable."

He has called for an apology from the person who leaked the details.

"It's a reprehensible act," he adds, saying leaks will prevent the new shadow cabinet having "sensible discussions" and will result in a divided opposition party.

"It should not have happened, and whoever did it owes an apology to the chief whip and the leader of the party."

Mitchell adds that he does not agree with Badenoch's comments about the PM and his actions throughout the 2024 election campaign.

"Rishi Sunak has taken responsibility very properly and nobly for that," he says.

"My view is that the Archangel Gabriel would not have been able to win the election for the Conservatives."

He describes the hours following the Exit Poll results on 4 July as a "dreadful night".

"I think what went wrong was in the last five years, and I suspect that – whether it's true or not – the public would say that the ethos of service to the people was not at the top of the Conservative Party priorities.

"I think that we have to be ruthlessly self reflective on recognising that that feeling was highly prevalent amongst the electorate."

He is now calling for the new opposition not to "rush" its process to find a successor to Sunak, and issues a reminder that political parties "do not win elections from the extremes".

"We're going to be in opposition now for five years," he says.

"Let's make sure that we get the right leader first time and don't go through some of the agonies we went through when we were last in opposition."

Listen to the discussion in full on The News Agents.