New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed Louth and Horncastle MP Victoria Atkins as the Shadow Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in her first shadow cabinet.
Ms Atkins has served in various ministerial positions between 2017 and 2024, most recently as health secretary from November 2023 to July 2024. She also held roles in the Home Office, including prisons minister, and served as financial secretary to the treasury before being appointed as health secretary by Rishi Sunak.
He has been an MP since 2015 and previously worked as a barrister specialising in organised crime.
She said she was ‘delighted’ to be taking on the shadow Defra brief. “Labour’s Budget of broken promises will hurt rural and coastal Britain and has shown that Labour does not understand the pressures we face,” she said. “I look forward to holding them to account on food security, climate change, flooding and the survival of family farms. And my wellies are very old Hunters!”