Kevin Hollinrake has become shadow housing secretary in new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet.
Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton since 2015, was previously shadow business secretary, a post he took up on July 8 under former prime minister Rishi Sunak after the Conservative party lost power to Labour.
Hollinrake held business posts under the previous government. In its last few months, Hollinrake was business minister. Between February 2023 and March 2024, he was business parliamentary undersecretary.
He held the same undersecretary position within the business department when it was previously named the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). In 2023, BEIS was split to form the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Hollinrake was twice a member of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, from 2015 to 2019. In 1992, he co-founded Hunters, an estate agency in York.
The Conservatives’ previous housing secretary was Michael Gove, who took a hard line with the housebuilding industry on planning and building safety. Gove resigned as an MP ahead of July’s general election.
