The joint chair of the Conservative Party says Priti Patel is "a talent" with "immense experience", as it emerges she is to become the shadow foreign secretary in Kemi Badenoch's cabinet. Nigel Huddleston adds, "she's loved by many members of the party and indeed across the country". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Look, there's a lot of Conservative MPs still willing and able to serve, including 28 brand
00:05new MPs who are immensely talented and I wouldn't be surprised, I don't know at the moment,
00:09but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some of those in the broader team as well.
00:13Look, I think we need to respect the fact that some colleagues who've served four years
00:17in government and in opposition have taken the decision to take some time on the back
00:22benches because it's incredibly intense being in government and indeed being in the front
00:28bench opposition roles.
00:30But what Kemi is doing, and she's said this from the beginning, is unite the party.
00:34So she's offering roles to people on the left and the right.
00:37We've already seen it in the few appointments already made and we'll see more later today.
00:41She's also said she wanted to offer roles to her opponents in this election and again,
00:46I think that speaks volumes about Kemi.
00:48She wants to make sure this is inclusive, this is diverse and reflects the full breadth
00:53of the Conservative Party and I think we'll see some people with a great deal of experience
00:57and some people with very little experience in government all being able to contribute.
01:02Well, I don't know what the appointments are at the moment, so we'll see shortly who's
01:07been appointed and then I'm sure they'll be willing to come on the programme as well and
01:12talk to you.
01:13But look, Priti is a talent.
01:14She's got immense experience and also I would be careful about throwing stones about Priti.
01:21At the moment we've got a foreign secretary and we've got a US election going on who's
01:26been incredibly offensive to somebody who might be US president.
01:30I think he called him a neo-Nazi sympathiser and a sociopath.
01:34Those kind of words would not come out of Priti Patel's mouth.
01:39She's diplomatic, she's immensely talented and she's loved by many members of the party
01:43and indeed across the country and I think this is part of the theme.
01:47You will see in Kemi's shadow cabinet the breadth of the party on display there, from
01:53the right and the left, the most experienced and some relatively junior and I think that's
01:57a good thing because we need to renew the party, we need to renew the proposition, so
02:02we need that breadth of experience and new people coming in.