Penny Mordaunt

A new poll of Conservative party members has put Penny Mordaunt on track to win the Tory leadership contest.

Too early to tell.’ MPs have already started voting in the first ballot of the race to replace Mr Johnson, with Mr Sunak the first candidate to cast a ballot. While the former chancellor is currently a frontrunner in the contest and expected to clear the first ballot with ease, he performed poorly in the head-to-heads presented in the poll.

Trade minister likens Boris Johnson to Paul McCartney playing new songs when people want the hits.

Asked which of the pair they would support, 67% picked Mordaunt, and just 28% went for the former chancellor. Seen by some as the “woke candidate” for her antipathy to the urge by some colleagues for the party to focus on “wedge issues” such as gender identity, Mordaunt stressed that she believed there was a “biological difference” between those who were born male and female. Mordaunt touted her Brexiter credentials, saying her plans for a “modern economy” focused on growth and competition, rather than tax and spending, would “yield a Brexit dividend”.

Penny Mordaunt has emerged as an early favourite for the top job, with many bookmakers putting her level with former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

However, she was replaced by Ben Wallace when Mr Johnson took over as leader two months later. Ms Mordaunt is the only candidate so far promising to reverse the Treasury’s “stealth tax” of freezing income tax thresholds. Ms Mordaunt has recently been pushing for state-wide trade deals with the US and has been leading the work on joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc. She is a Royal Navy reservist, following in the military footsteps of her father. The 49-year-old is from Torquay in Devon. She is the daughter of a former paratrooper, and says she is named after the Royal Navy ship HMS Penelope. Before becoming an MP, Ms Mordaunt was head of youth for the Conservative Party under former Prime Minister John Major, and was head of broadcasting under William Hague. She also briefly worked as head of foreign press for George W Bush’s presidential campaign in 2000.

Conservative Party members were asked who they would vote for if given a choice between just two names, with Ms Mordaunt winning against every competitor.

Asked to select their favourite replacement, Ms Mordaunt comes first among Tory members with 27% of votes. The members were also asked who they would vote for if given a choice between just two names, with Ms Mordaunt winning against every competitor. Conservative Party members were asked who they would vote for if given a choice between just two names, with Ms Mordaunt winning against every competitor.

The trade minister launched her pitch to be the next prime minister by assuring Conservative MPs she is best placed to keep them their seats.

“Well, they’re very sensible people because I’m a threat to their campaign,” she said, but added that the only people she will take the fight to is the Opposition. She argued that having stood on the same platform as Mr Johnson and other Tories in the 2019 election “we have a mandate and a big majority”. “I’m the candidate that Labour fear the most – and they’re right to,” she told Conservatives and reporters closely crammed into the sweltering room. The long-term Brexit backer said the Government supply side reforms would yield a “Brexit dividend” on investment, infrastructure and innovation. Leadership contender Penny Mordaunt has told Conservative MPs fearful of losing their seats under Boris Johnson that she is the candidate “Labour fear the most”. But she insisted she is “very different” from her would-be predecessor but indicated she would not call an early general election to win her own mandate if she entered No 10.

Penny Mordaunt will believe momentum is with her - whereas Foreign Secretary Liz Truss should feel anxious, writes Robert Peston. | ITV National News.

So the question is whether he has enough backers signed up or likely to come over such that he can lend some of their votes to any candidate he would feel more confident of beating in the final run-off. You will notice I am making a bold assumption - which may not hold - that Sunak is very likely to get to the long run-off contest over the summer, since he needs only another 32 votes to reach the magic 120, which guarantees a spot in the last two. For those Boris Johnson loyalists who want Sunak beaten at all costs, one question is whether they transfer their loyalties from Truss to Mordaunt - especially since recent polling (for example by YouGov) shows that Sunak may struggle to beat Mordaunt in the final run-off when Tory party members make the important decision on which of the two top candidates will be party leader and prime minister.

Onetime Defense Secretary Penny Mordaunt, is emerging as the biggest threat to former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's campaign to lead the ...

- Opinion: Putin and the UFO Sightings You may cancel your subscription at anytime by calling Customer Service. Seen as a long shot only days ago, she became the odds-on favorite Wednesday at betting houses in Britain after several polls showed her topping popularity polls with grass-roots Conservative members.

The trade minister has been described as 'continuity Boris Johnson' and 'Theresa May with bigger hair' but her allies say her most important quality is ...

An MP who knows Ms Mordaunt well says this is a “dirty trick” and that she is “resolutely wedded to her red box”. One MP who knows her well says she can. The source added that her stance on trans rights might prove a stumbling block. Many see her as a strong contender to face the ex-Chancellor in the final run-off. Her grandmother’s cousin is Dame Angela Lansbury of Murder She Wrote fame, and she starred, whie an MP, in the celebrity diving programme Splash!, donating her £10,000 appearance fee to charity. Ms Perrior, who has known the leadership candidate for more than 20 years, says: “She trained me and I looked up to her.

All the eight UK PM candidates, who received the support of 20 MPs, will now compete in the first round of voting scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

"...as Prime Minister, I will continue to deliver on the opportunities of the Brexit," she said in a video post. In a video announcing his candidature, he said, "We need leadership that returns government to service of our economy, our people and our country. 8. Nadhim Zahawi: "NZ4PM" is his hashtag for his social media campaign. He also aims to "replicate Ireland’s ‘Celtic tiger’ with bold business tax cuts that unleash the growth that’s been missing from our economy for too long". "I'm putting myself forward in this leadership election because I want to tell the truth. He launched a campaign "#Ready4Rishi" on social media. "#PM4PM" is the social media hashtag her supporters have been using to show solidarity with her. The elections were announced after Boris Johnson announced his resignation as the prime minister and leader of the UK Conservative Party earlier this month. She also wrote about free speech and free markets. The winner will become the new Tory leader. She emerged winner in a survey published by ConservativeHome, that looked at how Conservative party members would vote for all the candidates in one-to-one contests, a report said. The new UK PM will be announced on September 5.

Sunak Wins First Round of Tory Contest to Succeed Johnson · Former chancellor gets 88 votes, Mordaunt second with 67 · Next ballot of Conservative MPs is ...

Scramble is on for Tory hopefuls to pick up the votes of Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi, who have been eliminated.

That could all change with the TV debates on Friday and Sunday. With Braverman likely to be eliminated in tomorrow’s vote, the remaining five are set to participate. After the announcement, one ally of the Foreign Secretary described the results unenthusiastically as “solid”. She will have lost votes to Braverman and to Kemi Badenoch, who was only ten votes behind her. One ally of Sunak, the former chancellor, predicted that some survivors may fail to secure the requisite 30 votes tomorrow as MPs focus on the leaders.

Ex-chancellor and trade minister will face four other candidates in next round of voting by MPs.

Penny Mordaunt will succeed Boris Johnson as the next leader of the Tory party, an exclusive Conservative leadership election forecast suggests.

So far in the leadership race, Ms Mordaunt has performed well - gaining public declarations of support from Conservative colleagues to help her progress through the first phases of the race. Mr Zahawi, brought in by Boris Johnson after Mr Sunak’s resignation, got 25 and Mr Hunt only 18. The forecast predicts that the trade minister will finish in first place, with 133 MP votes.

Jeremy Hunt and Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi were both eliminated in the first round of voting among Tory MPs, with former chancellor Rishi Sunak topping the ballot ...

He said: “We will cut taxes and we will do it responsibly. That’s my economic approach. Around 160,000 Tory members will then choose the next party leader and prime minister. Elsewhere, former army officer Tom Tugendhat, who has pledged to boost defence spending, took a thinly-veiled swipe at Mr Sunak’s refusal to set “arbitrary targets” in this area, telling reporters: “We will never put the safety of our country in doubt because of bean counters and spreadsheets. The naval reservist and former defence secretary pledged to return to traditional Conservative values of “low tax, small state and personal responsibility”. Mr Rees-Mogg argued that the Foreign Secretary is “fiscally on the right side of the argument”, unlike Mr Sunak. The minister told Sky News that Ms Truss “opposed the endless tax rises of the former chancellor, which I think have been economically damaging, I also was opposed to (them) in Cabinet”. Ms Mordaunt officially launched her campaign yesterday by telling colleagues who had been fearful of losing their seats under Mr Johnson’s leadership that she is their “best shot” at winning the next election. Ms Dorries, the Culture Secretary, accused the former chancellor’s campaign of deploying “dirty tricks” and backed Ms Truss as the Brexiteers’ candidate. Scottish Tory MP John Lamont, who is backing Ms Mordaunt, said the result of the first round of voting was “promising”. “Everyone in our great country should be born with the same opportunities and be able to know that the town they are born in has opportunity”. Mr Hunt, who failed to get the 30 votes required to get to the next stage, has held the offices of health and foreign secretary and lost to Mr Johnson in the 2019 leadership race.

UK News: LONDON : Former finance minister Rishi Sunak might be the most popular contender with his colleagues to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and ...

As the contest intensifies it has also becomefractious as rival camps trade barbs and some offer a series of eyecatching tax cutting pledges. The new leader will then be chosen from those two by the 200,000 Conservative Party members, and be announced on September 5. They will go through to a second round of voting on Thursday. Subsequent ballots will be held among the Conservative lawmakers, eliminating the candidate with the fewest votes each time, to whittle the field down to a final two by July 21.

UK Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt is the favorite for the Conservative leadership among party members, according to a snap YouGov poll.

'I didn't even know where she was,' says ex-negotiator in scathing attack on favourite's Brexit credentials.

Ms Truss has appealed to Brexiteers by claiming she was a “reluctant Remainer” at the 2016 Brexit referendum. “All three of those candidates … are saying very interesting things, things that the country needs to hear. ERG chair Mark Francois is backing Ms Truss, while several other leading figures in the group opt for Ms Braverman. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. The right-wing Tory peer added: “She wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.

Tory members predict trade minister will rise to top as former chancellor fails to clinch a high percentage of first round votes.

Former Brexit minister and other Liz Truss allies hit out at Mordaunt after she came second in first ballot.

“Even if the style is different, the substance will not be very different.” Mordaunt, who had little interaction with the EU during her ministerial career, is not well known in Brussels. Those who have followed her career are not enthused about her moving to No 10. “I’m afraid this became such a problem that after six months I had to ask the PM to move her on and find somebody else to support me. In an interview with the Spectator she suggested tax cuts could be paid for through extra borrowing. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the EU when that was necessary and I’m afraid she wasn’t fully accountable or always visible. “I’m sorry to say this, she did not master the necessary detail in the negotiations last year.

A new poll conducted within the Conservative Party members taken immediately after the announcement of the final candidates for the prime ministerial race ...

Mordaunt's closest competitor head-to-head is Truss, who she defeated by 55 percent to 37 percent. Because the truth is worth it.) MP Kemi Badenoch came second at 15 percent, followed by former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, at 13 percent each.

Penny Mordaunt's belly flop on ITV series Splash! goes viral as politician competes to become the next Prime Minister of the UK.

‘We will stand with Nato in defence of our common values and we will not flinch from the hard graft and putting boots on the ground on the alliance’s borders.’ Following her bid for leadership, Ms Mordaunt has vowed to make defence the ‘first duty’ of government should she emerge victorious in the race for Number 10. ‘Petition for ITV to put all episodes of Splash! on Demand if Penny gets to the final 2,’ one penned.

Tories in the British Parliament cast their first-round of votes on Wednesday to pick a candidate to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson as head ...

Sunak promised to confront the difficult economic backdrop with “honesty, seriousness and determination,” rather than piling the burden on future generations. After his elimination from the race, Hunt announced that he was backing Sunak for the position of prime minister. In practice, some lawmakers often retract their candidacy, speeding up the process.

Seemingly from nowhere, the Minister of State for Trade Policy has become one of the front-runners in the battle to replace Boris Johnson in September.

Indeed, she's got a strong military background: her father was a parachuter before retraining as a teacher, and she was named after HMS Penelope. She was also a member of the Royal Navy from 2010-2019, and is currently the only female MP who is a Royal Naval Reserve. It is her military knowledge and experience that she hopes might help her get the top job at No 10, particularly in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. An MP for Portsmouth North since 2010, Penny's first big roles in government were under David Cameron, when she was both Armed Forces Minister and Defence Secretary, becoming the first woman to hold the former role. According to a report published in the Daily Mail earlier this week, only 11 per cent of the public can identify MP Penny Mordaunt when shown a photograph of her.

Currently second to Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest, Penny Mordaunt has fast become a serious candidate to be the next prime minister.

Anything but blue please". During 1922 Committee hustings on Wednesday she was also criticised for opting to replace the words "woman" and "mother" with "person" in legislation that allowed her leadership rival Suella Braverman to go on maternity leave. A member of the British Astronomical Association, she has four Burmese cats and is now the only known Navy reservist in the House of Commons. Told by judges she had the "elegance and drive of a paving slab" and criticised by her Labour rivals for not focusing on her day job, she claimed she did it so she could donate most of her £10,000 fee to saving a lido in her constituency. In order to fund her studies, she worked in a Johnson and Johnson factory and as a magician's assistant to the then-president of the Portsmouth Magical Society and British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. In 2014 she caused uproar with some in her party and those on the Labour benches when she admitted that she made a speech during a debate on poultry welfare the year before as a forfeit from her Navy colleagues. She was accused of "trivialising parliament" after revealing in an award acceptance speech that she used the word 'cock' 'lay' and 'laid' several times to make up for a misdemeanour during her reservist training. She was re-selected in January 2006 to contest the seat again and at the 2010 General Election she was voted in with a 7,289 majority. When she was finally able to leave home, she went to Romania for a gap year where she worked in orphanages and hospitals in the wake of the 1989 revolution that toppled the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. Having been active in student politics, after she graduated in 1995 she worked as head of youth for the Conservative Party under John Major and as head of broad of broadcasting when William Hague was in opposition. Reflecting on it in a 2019 interview with The Sunday Times, she said: "It was pretty relentless in terms of stresses and losing a parent, you're trying to deal with all of that and study, run a house, look after two brothers. A YouGov poll of Tory party members put her in first place, with her fellow MPs claiming she has worked relentlessly on the "rubber chicken circuit" of charity dinners and throughout her Portsmouth constituency to make a name for herself since being elected in 2010.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss in deep trouble as she trails home in distant third place.

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Analysis: Confident message from MP relatively untainted by association with Johnson seems to resonate with many Tories.

(Hunt has not returned the favour, swinging behind Sunak on Wednesday after winning just 18 votes in the first round). She is a trade minister – but unlike Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman or the ill-fated Nadhim Zahawi, did not sit in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, or form part of his inner circle. At her campaign launch on Wednesday, she took plenty of questions and parried them wryly – contrasting with the more senior Liz Truss’s woodenness at her own speech the next day.

Penny Mordaunt closed her gap on frontrunner Rishi Sunak as the race to succeed Boris Johnson at the helm of the U.K.'s governing Conservative Party ...

Johnson is staying on in an interim capacity while the leadership race plays out, and will step aside September 6, after the new leader is confirmed in the job. Truss, who earned the valuable backing of former Brexit negotiator David Frost Thursday, is popular among the Right of the Conservative Party, and both her and Badenoch, a former equalities minister who has run on a free-market, anti-‘woke’ ticket, are well-placed to gather up support from Braverman’s backers. Under Conservative Party rules, MPs get to have the first say on the field of hopefuls, eliminating the lowest-placed candidate in successive rounds of voting before the final two are put to a vote of the wider Tory membership.

The result puts both on course to reach the run-off over the summer -- though the picture can still change -- when grassroots Conservative Party members ...

The Sri Lankan army statement comes in wake of the anti-government protests which continue amid the exit of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka. This comes after the military establishment refused acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe's directive to use force on the protesters. A Singapore foreign ministry statement, meanwhile, has ruled out talk of asylum for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A Singapore foreign ministry statement, meanwhile, has ruled out talk of asylum for Rajapaksa. He might later move to the UAE, sources said. She also said she would cancel a planned rise in corporation tax. He added that he wanted to see tax cuts during this Parliament but declined to say when he thought they would be possible. Accusations of smears and lies between candidates were what the Conservative Party had been seeking to avoid when it came up with rules designed to accelerate the contest. Attorney General Suella Braverman was knocked out, under rules that remove the candidate with the lowest support. Polling shows Mordaunt, whose momentum has built rapidly in recent weeks, prevailing when the winner is announced on Sept. 5. The contest has been marked by growing rancor between rival campaigns. The next ballot is scheduled for Monday.

Five candidates remain in the battle to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the UK Conservative Party and Prime Minister, as betting firms adjust their odds ...

British Conservative leadership contender Penny Mordaunt came under blistering attack Thursday after she surged in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris ...

The eventual winner is set to be announced on September 5. And he is opposed to immediate tax cuts to confront a post-pandemic cost-of-living crisis, stressing the need instead for fiscal responsibility. Sometimes I didn't even know where she was." Drawing a pointed contrast to Johnson, Hunt said the former chancellor of the exchequer was "one of the most decent, straight people with the highest standards of integrity" in politics. Two of the Tory candidates were knocked out Wednesday, and the bottom ranking contender was to be eliminated in a second vote by MPs that began Thursday morning. In the first round of voting by Conservative MPs on Wednesday, she came a strong second behind former finance minister Rishi Sunak and ahead of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and was installed as the new favourite by bookmakers.