To 2 Lord North Street, SW1, home of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Once it was the likes of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng that were feted here, but last night there was a new queen in town. Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House, swept in with all her magnificent curls, to be the star turn at this year’s IEA Christmas shindig. To much applause from her ‘pen pals’ in the audience, Mordaunt regaled the crowd with a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life.
In the world envisaged by Mordaunt, Ed Miliband won the 2015 election to be succeeded by prime minister Corbyn and all the horrors that would have entailed. In such a parallel world, ‘levelling up’ is merely the name of a nightclub in Camden and Boris is still mayor of London, arming the capital with water cannons aplenty. Mordaunt ended on a rousing note, declaring:
‘I remember Labour’s record – that is why I’m sticking around, to fight the next election…Enjoy your Christmas, get some rest and sharpen your pens because we are not done.’
And Steerpike’s night certainly wasn’t done as he hotfooted it over to the palatial splendour of the May Fair hotel. It was Conservative Home‘s inaugural Christmas party where the keynote speaker was none other than…Penny Mordaunt, who opted to recycle all the jokes she had just made half-an-hour earlier. Clearly the spirit of Cop26 isn’t dead just yet. Still, the crowd seemed to like it and the message was clear: whatever Mordaunt’s ups and downs of this year, she’s ready for the challenges of the next.
Perhaps the ‘Penny reign’ shouldn’t be written off just yet…
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