Last night Penny Mordaunt was the guest of honour at the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Below is an edited transcript of her speech.
When Fraser first contacted me about presenting tonight, I have to say I wasn’t convinced. I said, ‘who, with a glittering Cabinet career ahead of them would ever be so stupid?’ He said, yes, Penny – that is why we are calling you.
I wasn’t the first person he called. He tried Diane Abbott, and asked her to come along and do a quick round-up of 2019. She declined. She said she wasn’t very good with numbers.
He asked literally everyone. He couldn’t get an ice sculpture to do this gig. So I’m sorry folks, you’ve got me. But you know I haven’t quite given up on the hope that I might find my way back onto the front benches at some point. So you’ll have to excuse the fact that I’m going to have to litter my remarks tonight with craven, crawling, sucking up, and kissing the arses of those who are now running the show.
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