Why Penny Mordaunt should take the plunge

The first time I met Penny Mordaunt was in a field at the Big Tent festival in Cambridge after she had been interviewed sitting on a rickety chair on the grass under a huge teepee. 

Mordaunt was being quizzed about her latest article for the ConservativeHome website, one in which she outlined her political philosophy on how to improve public life. And, boy was she outspoken – declaring war on businessmen stealing our pensions, on charity leaders covering up sexual abuse, criticising politicians for fiddling expenses and doctors mistreating patients, while ripping into those who were trying to overturn Brexit. 

We chatted briefly after the talk: she’s even more striking in the flesh than on TV and has that film star quality which makes everyone want to get close to her and has men weak at the knees. 

Unfortunately for Mordaunt, her striking appearance is already becoming something that will play against her in the upcoming leadership battle: that is, if she stands. 

Many of the Tory party’s grey men feel threatened by what they see as her unfair advantage, not least because she is so photogenic. If they have to have a woman they would perhaps prefer someone with fewer female charms like Liz Truss.

Yet the junior trade minister is not just a pretty face: she has other armoury which is equally deadly. She has gumption, and delivers barbs across the opposition benches with devastating effect at the despatch box. 

One of her most memorable demolition jobs in the Commons was her brilliant takedown of Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, who in November 2021, accused government ministers and its advisers of fiddling the books, alleging the mishandling of contracts during the pandemic.

Mordaunt was unflinching in her response, turning the tables smartly on Rayner and accusing her of smear, innuendo and speculation. Worth a watch. It was a clash of big hairdos, but one which the MP for Portsmouth North won with her hair still immaculate. But you can’t hold that against her. 

Looking back now to Mordaunt’s “twelve new rules for political life” delivered in that Cambridge tent, you can sense the beginnings of a personal manifesto: restore trust in our institutions, individual responsibility, and small government, but one which is inclusive. As she reminded her audience: “We stand on the brink of huge breakthroughs in making the world healthier and wealthier. Without those things that have enabled us to make progress to date, we will fail to make progress in the future.”

Since then the Royal Naval reservist has held several senior government positions – in spring 2019 she became the UK’s first ever female secretary of state for defence – albeit a short-lived one. But she left government after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in June that year having backed Jeremy Hunt for the leadership, a move which cost her a top seat at the Cabinet table.

Even so, Johnson brought her back in 2020, joining the Cabinet Office as Paymaster General and she was the UK’s alternate co-chair of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee. She was then demoted again to a junior trade minister dealing with WTO and other more esoteric trade issues: good training, you might say.  

As a dedicated Brexiteer, it’s natural that Mordaunt is one of life’s optimists. She co-authored “Greater: Britain After the Storm,” which takes a rosy look at the country’s post-Brexit future outside the European Union.

Indeed, the book – which won the Parliamentary Book Award for 2021 – took up some of those Big Tent themes, that political life needs reforming, financial markets need modernising, the West needs to get its mojo back, more nimble government and greater trust in people’s own instincts.  

To her credit, Mordaunt has been one of the few insiders who have spoken out against government policy, and stuck her neck out to back a recent report by the Adam Smith Institute calling for tax cuts. She said: “To increase revenues and growth for the nation, cut taxes. To improve options and opportunity for individuals, cut taxes. To balance the state and generate wealth funds for future generations, cut taxes.” 

No wonder a ConHome leaders poll of members this week put Mordaunt in second place behind Ben Wallace, the defence secretary. Some suggest the two – who share an interest in the military – might work together on a dream ticket. 

Her semi-detached position is one of the reasons the 49-year-old is viewed by many traditionalists in the party as what’s called a “freelancer” – in Tory code, that’s a serious snub. “She can’t be pigeon-holed, and that’s dangerous,” one Tory MP told me. “Not easy to dismiss from the right or left of the party.” 

It’s why many in the Labour party secretly fear Mordaunt for PM as they know that while hard on economic issues, she is socially more to the centre. As she said in her twelve rules article, “I happen to believe everyone is a Conservative, they just haven’t realised it yet!”. 

No wonder Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kempton, told GB News on Thursday that Mordaunt pitching herself as a leadership candidate would be “extremely” challenging for Labour. 

Her background is as fascinating as her unusual rise to being considered a serious potential leadership candidate. Born in Portsmouth, her father was a former paratrooper and the story goes that she is named after the Arethusa-class cruiser, HMS Penelope. 

Her mother died when she was 15, and Mordaunt stepped into her role, looking after her brothers. To help pay her way through her theatrical studies, she worked as a magician’s assistant, which is perhaps where she learned the tricks of the trade which have come to life at the despatch box.

After a gap year working in Romanian orphanages, she read philosophy at Reading and then worked in PR. But politics beckoned – a calling which she says was formed while working in the orphanages – and became head of youth for the Conservative Party and then of broadcasting under William Hague. 

A spell in PR for the Freight Transport Association was followed by work as head of foreign press for George W Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000, and she hit the campaign trail again in 2004. She clearly got the bug, taking the plunge into politics herself, having a stab at standing as MP for Portsmouth North in 2005. She lost to the Labour candidate but made it as an MP in 2010 – with a decent Tory swing – and has not looked back. 

Mordaunt made her own national headlines in 2014, diving 7.5m in a now-defunct reality TV diving competition called “Splash!” That takes nerve. Hopefully, she will have another go at making a splash and join the race to be the next PM.