Penny Mordaunt will be taking in part in tonight’s seven-way BBC General Election debates – but she’s probably better known for her unusual role during King Charles’ coronation.
As Lord President of the Council, the 51-year-old was responsible for bearing the Sword of State and presenting the Jewelled Sword of Offering to the King. It was the first time the role has been carried out by a woman.
Dressed in a cape with gold feather embroidery, she held and carried the sword for around 51 minutes during the ceremony. She later revealed that she managed to maintain her poise by taking painkillers beforehand.
Ms Mordaunt – who has been tipped as a future Tory leader should Rishi Sunak be dumped out after the General Election – will be back on people’s TV screens at 7.30pm tonight as she faces six political rivals on BBC One, including Labour’s Angela Rayner.
Speaking after the coronation about how she managed to hold the sword for so long, she told the BBC: “You want to make sure you are in good nick. I did take a couple of painkillers before just to make sure I was going to be all right.” Labour’s Shadow Commons Leader Thangham Debbonaire praised her in the Commons as “a symbol of solemnity, the first woman to have ever presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering to a British monarch”. She added: “She diligently carried out her duty with grace and poise and was a credit to this House as our representative.”
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Before being knocked out in the penultimate round of the 2022 Conservative leadership election, she raised eyebrows by tweeting the title of a Telegraph article which read: “Vote for Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss today and you’ll murder the party you love.” She has since deleted the tweet.
After being made Commons leader under Liz Truss, she has since been responsible for delivery of the Government’s legislative programme and chaired the Parliamentary Business and Legislation Cabinet Committee. Penny was previously a ministerial disability champion and Minister of State for Trade Policy and has been an MP for Portsmouth North since 2010.
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She was also a vocal supporter of the Leave campaign in the 2016 EU referendum. and was criticised for making misleading statements, such as claiming the UK would not be able to stop Turkey joining the bloc. More recently, the minister was called out by fact-checkers Full Fact after falsely claiming that Labour had pledged to open Britain’s borders to 100,000 more migrants each year.
Penny is one of the bookies’ favourites to become the next leader of the Conservative party if Rishi Sunak is forced to resign after a defeat for the party next month. In March, she dismissed rumours that she was planning a leadership challenge to topple the Prime Minister as “nonsense”.