Penny Mordaunt, the dark horse in the Conservative leadership campaign, has launched her bid to become prime minister with a promise to return to old Tory themes of “low tax, a small state and personal responsibility” as the increasingly contentious contest approaches the voting stage.
Just hours before Tory MPs’ first-round vote on Wednesday, Mordaunt, who is hoping to appeal to all wings of the party, invoked the memory of Margaret Thatcher, who led the Conservatives to three election triumphs in the late 1970s and 1980s.
The mid-ranking trade minister said her low tax, small state, strong defence platform would help restore a “sense of self” to the party. “We don’t need a new role in the world — just to be ourselves,” she said.
Voting ends at 3.30pm UK time, as MPs start whittling down the list of candidates from its current tally of eight. Each candidate will require 30 votes to proceed to the second round.
If all candidates reach that threshold, the last placed candidate is eliminated. MPs will then vote in the following days to choose a shortlist of two, to present to Tory members to make the final choice on September 5.
Although Mordaunt is not currently in the cabinet — she was briefly defence secretary in 2019 — she trails only Rishi Sunak in terms of MPs’ declared support. Sunak resigned as chancellor of the exchequer last week in a move that helped impel Boris Johnson’s resignation, and has been accused of “treachery” by the outgoing prime minister’s allies.
Many Conservative MPs maintain that Mordaunt, a Brexiter and social liberal, will be locked in a battle with Liz Truss, foreign secretary, to challenge Sunak in the final run-off for the leadership, offering a “fresh start”.
Speaking at a launch at Westminster, Mordaunt said her formative political experience was watching Thatcher’s naval task force sailing out of Portsmouth harbour at the start of the Falklands war in 1982.
She said that Britain felt like the crowd at last month’s Glastonbury festival watching Sir Paul McCartney, who played a set that strayed from well-known Beatles classics: “He was playing new tunes but what we really wanted was the good old stuff.”
While some of her pitch will appeal to the Tory right, her progressive stance on social issues including trans rights is seen by some as a liability when seeking votes among Tory activists.
Mordaunt cited Thatcher’s comment that “every prime minister needs a Willie” — a reference to the late prime minister’s deputy Willie Whitelaw. In what could be seen as an attempt to be inclusive over the issue, she said: “A woman like me doesn’t have one.”
Mordaunt added that the public were “fed up with divisive politics”, suggesting she would dial back the so-called culture wars being pursued by the Johnson administration.
Her launch was more forceful and less stage-managed than her rivals’ and she took more questions from the media. She said: “I’m the candidate Labour fear the most.”
Some of Mordaunt’s rivals claim she is hazy on economics: at one point she talked about how her monetary policy would control inflation — an area for which the Bank of England has responsibility.
Sunak has also traced his economic policy back to the Thatcher era, telling the Daily Telegraph newspaper he shared the Iron Lady’s commitment to controlling inflation and sound public finances.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Jeremy Hunt, former foreign secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, the new chancellor, and Suella Braverman, attorney-general, were all struggling to reach the 30-vote threshold to remain in the contest.
Kemi Badenoch, former equalities minister, is hoping to stay in the race, alongside Sunak, Truss, Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee.