Penny Mordaunt had an ITV audience in stitches as she inadvertently delivered a withering put-down of her own boss.
The Tory frontbencher endured a brutal night as she was repeatedly drubbed by senior figures from six other parties. Facing a buoyant Nigel Farage, who shortly before the debate learned his Reform UK had overtaken the Conservatives in a major YouGov poll, she was met with derision as she desperately tried to defend Rishi Sunak’s record.
And she was the victim of savage put-downs by Labour’s Angela Rayner. In one telling moment Ms Mordaunt floundered as she was asked why voters should trust the Tories after years of broken promises.
Challenged over the Conservatives’ failure to bring down net migration, she was asked by Mr Farage why voters should believe a fifth manifesto pledge to cut it. Last year it stood at 685,000, up from around 230,000 in 2019 when then-PM Boris Johnson vowed to cut it.
In response to the Reform UK leader’s question she said: “Because of the record of this Prime Minister.” Mr Farage, who spent the evening taunting Ms Mordaunt, burst into laughter and said: “Enough, I’m happy.” Audience members also howled at the response.
It came in a difficult debate for Ms Mordaunt, with Mr Farage enjoying every opportunity to gloat. As she tried to convince viewers not to back Mr Farage’s right-wing party, he shot back: “A vote for you is a vote for Labour.”
And in a baffling head-to-head with Ms Rayner, Ms Mordaunt desperately tried to turn the tables – with no success. Trying to defend her party’s record on migration she suggested Labour should have done better from the opposition benches. “You’ve had 14 years to come up with some ideas on this and we have,” she said.
The Labour deputy leader swiftly responded: “You’ve had 14 years in Government.” The brutal put-down was met with roars of laughter from the audience. Ms Mordaunt was also laughed at when she suggested the country’s crumbling schools are “world class”.
Ms Rayner was one of four politicians – including Ms Mordaunt, Mr Farage and Lib Dem Daisy Cooper – who raised their hands when asked if they want to bring migration down. Taking the Tories to task, she said the country has become over-dependant on workers from overseas. She said: “What we need at the moment is a skills strategy.
“We have not had an industrial and skills strategy, so what we have is we’ve been over-reliant in our economy from overseas workers to fill our skills gap, and they’ve done a tremendous job in doing that and we have needed that, but what we really need is, as employment levels have gone higher again, is we need to really match those skills to give people opportunity to take those jobs.”
But the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accused Labour, the Tories, Reform UK and the Lib Dems of playing into “the Westminster status quo”. And he told Ms Mordaunt: “You know what the public can’t afford Penny, is one single day more of a Conservative Government.”
Ms Mordaunt, tipped as a future party leader if she regains her seat, was up against a jubilant Mr Farage, who claimed “we are now the opposition” after Reform overtook the Tories in an opinion poll. The YouGov survey showed support for his party rising by two points to 19%, as the Tories remained on 18%. The poll, conducted after the launch of the Conservative manifesto on Tuesday, showed Labour down one point to 37%.
In an ugly spat between the right-wingers, Ms Mordaunt said: “Nigel is a Labour enabler. He is enabling no cap, no target, and no plan.” Mr Farage responded: “I don’t believe a single word that you say, you have deceived us in the last four manifestos. I don’t believe you at the fifth.
“And as for being a Labour enabler, we are now ahead of you in the national polls. A vote for you is actually now a vote for Labour.”
But Mr Farage didn’t emerge unscathed. Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth accused him of having been on “a dogwhistle tour of the UK for many, many years and exploiting the anxiety that people have”.
It came as politicians were also confronted over the soaring use of food banks under the Tories and failing public services. Audience member Janice asked the panel: “Britain is a rich country. I’ve worked in housing for 32 years. Why am I working every day with individuals and families who never thought they’d struggle but now I rely on foodbanks and are at serious risk of homelessness?”
And another, named Dennis, told them:“I was born around the time that the NHS was founded. It was an amazing thing, but unfortunately now it’s on its knees. So many public services are not working as they used to.”
He demanded to know what the different parties would do. Ms Mordaunt was told by her rivals that the Government has overseen chaos. “You’ve decimated primary care,” Lib Dem Ms Cooper told her.
Earlier damning polling reveals almost six out of 10 Tory voters believe Rishi Sunak’s party is “in crisis” as it plunges new depths of unpopularity. Damning polling by Savanta, carried out after the PM’s D-Day blunder, found 58% of those who voted Conservative in 2019 believe the party’s in turmoil. And that rises to 69% across the wider public.
Just 18% of people believe the Tories aren’t in crisis, Savanta found. Mr Sunak is expected to slump to a humiliating defeat on July 4, and has even had to bat away speculation that he might quit before polling day.
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The Savanta research found that 85% who plan to vote for Reform think the Tories are in crisis. Just 13% were undecided. Emma Levin, associate director at the polling firm, said: “When senior Government ministers are having to confirm that their leader will definitely still be around by polling day, it’s unsurprising that the voters have picked up a sense of crisis enveloping the Conservative Party.”
“Our research suggests that some of Rishi Sunak’s key target voters – namely those currently saying they’re going to vote for Reform UK – are some of the most likely to say the Conservatives are in crisis.”
It comes after the PM was booed, heckled and confronted by angry members of the public in a brutal Sky News leaders’ debate. Host Beth Rigby even questioned whether he’d stay at the helm if he were to win the General Election.
Shell-shocked Mr Sunak faced the ire of furious NHS staff, disgruntled young voters and even a former local Tory chair on a horror evening in Grimsby. And a snap YouGov poll after the debate confirmed that the PM had been trounced, with 64% saying Keir Starmer had come up on top.
Mr Sunak was confronted with the unprecedented Tory turmoil since the 2019 election. Since then Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the current incumbent have held the top job.
Ms Rigby asked him: “We’ve had three Prime Ministers, five Chancellors, five Home Secretaries, six Health Secretaries. How do we know that if you won the General Election, you’d still be Prime Minister in a year’s time?”
Mr Sunak – who has struggled to hold his warring party together in recent months – responded: “Look I can appreciate people’s frustrations. Of course, we haven’t got everything right. I don’t think any Government does. And I know it’s been very difficult for many people, but what I can do is work as hard as I can to deliver the stability that I said I would.”
Earlier this week he had to deny suggestions he might quit before the election. Asked whether resigning had crossed his mind, Mr Sunak told broadcasters during a visit to the Dog and Bacon pub in Horsham: “No, of course not. I’m energised about the vision that we’re putting forward for the country.”
It came after he came under fire for leaving a D-Day commemoration in Normandy early, leaving David Cameron to be pictured with world leaders. He has since begged voters to forgive him and admitted it was a mistake.