A 35 year old MP elected for the first time in 2024 has been appointed as the shadow housing secretary – the Tories’ pick facing Angela Rayner.

Katie Lam replaces Sir James Cleverly, the experienced former Cabinet minister who is now to contest the London Mayoral election in 2027.

While studying at Cambridge University she was elected president of the Union and ran the university’s Conservative association.

Her website describes her career before becoming an MP like this: “Katie spent the rest of her career in the private sector. 

“She was Chief of Staff at AI company Faculty, one of the UK’s fastest growing tech businesses, and before that spent the bulk of her career at Goldman Sachs, first in equity research, and later leading teams running various projects, analysis and operations internally.”

During her short period as MP for the Weald of Kent she has made controversial comments about immigration, and once being described by party leader Kemi Badenoch as having spoken ‘imprecisely’ about Tory policy on the subject.