John Lamont has been sacked as the Shadow Scottish Secretary after backing the loser in the Tory leadership contest. The Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP was booted from the Conservative frontbench by Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday morning.
Lamont had backed Badenoch’s rival Robert Jenrick in the race to replace Rishi Sunak. He has been replaced by West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie, who backed Badenoch for the leadership.
Lamont had been serving as Shadow Scottish Secretary since the Tories‘ general election defeat in July. Before that he had served as a Scotland Office minister for two years, regularly answering for the department in the House of Commons. He has been an MP since 2017, winning his seat from the SNP. He previously served as an MSP from 2007.
Lamont raised eyebrows when he backed right-winger Jenrick in the leadership race as the Scot is not seen as being on the right of the party. He appeared in one of Jenrick’s campaign videos and said he was backing him because “immigration is a defining issue for the party”.
Bowie is the only Scottish MP to have been named in Badenoch’s shadow cabinet. He was also the only one who supported her bid to become leader. He was first elected in 2017 and had held several government jobs, including nuclear minister. Since the election he had been serving as Shadow Energy Secretary. He also serves as a shadow junior energy minister alongside the Scotland Office brief.
New Dumfries and Galloway MP John Cooper – who worked in the Scotland Office as an adviser before the election – also backed Jenrick. Gordon and Buchan MP Harriet Cross supported Tom Tugendhat, who was knocked out earlier in the race. Former Scotland Secretary David Mundell did not publicly back anyone for the leadership.
Badenoch was announced as the new Tory leader on Saturday morning. She won 53,806 votes (56.5 per cent) compared to Jenrick’s 41,388 (43.5 per cent).
Jenrick was appointed Shadow Justice Secretary, while former home secretary Priti Patel was made Shadow Foreign Secretary. Fellow leadership contender Mel Stride was made Shadow Chancellor, while Badenoch backer Chris Philp was made Shadow Home Secretary.
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