James Cleverly's return is the boost Kemi Badenoch needs right now

The return of Sir James Cleverly is an important vote of confidence in Kemi Badenoch. When big beasts are on the backbenches, pundits start wondering if they are biding their time before taking another run at the leadership - or if they simply do not think the present leader will make it to Downing Street.

Sir James has sent out an important message by joining Mrs Badenoch's team. It is as if he is saying: "If I believe in Kemi enough to serve under her, you should certainly for."

A party which had just 121 MPs elected last year cannot afford to have top talent on the sidelines. Sir James brings battle-forged experience as a former Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.

It is also a signal Mrs Badenoch does not want to remake the Tories in the image of Reform UK.

Sir James is up for a scrap with Nigel Farage's party - and with any former colleagues who defect to it. Last week he described Reform as a "repository for disgruntled former Conservatives".

But he is wary of the Conservatives being pushed to the Right by the insurgent party which tops the polls.

While fellow former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has put together a blueprint for leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, Sir James sounded a sceptical note about abandoning it last week. Suggesting there are alternative reasons why Britain is struggling with deportations, he said there other "signatories to the ECHR are kicking out foreign criminals much more than we are".

His presence at the shadow cabinet table as Shadow Housing Secretary - going head to ahead with deputy PM Angela Rayner - sends out a further message that Mrs Badenoch does not want the Tories to be pushed off the centre-ground of British politics.

At the next election the Conservatives will face intense attacks from the Liberal Democrats, who are notorious in Tory circles for their campaigning stamina.

Eighteen of the Lib Dems' expected top 20 target seats are held by the Conservatives. Sir Ed Davey's party will do everything it can to portray the Tories as Right-wing ideologues who have lost touch with the concerns of ordinary voters; Mrs Badenoch can dispatch Sir James to assure constituents in swing seats that he is focused on improving the quality of their lives.

His military background is also valuable as the country jolts awake to the threats to Britain's national security. And as a former co-chairman of the party, he has an acute understanding of what makes the typical Tory activist tick.

With the Conservatives on 17% in the polls, behind Labour on 22% and Reform on 29%, the party is in a battle for electoral survival. With Sir James by her side, Mrs Badenoch heads into this fight with a stronger team and a top lieutenant whose eyes are set on victory.