If a week is a long time in politics, then a fortnight is an eternity. Two weeks ago, Penny Mordaunt was the bookies’ favourite to be our next Prime Minister, riding high in the polls and second among MPs. Now, after a bruising campaign, the vanquished candidate has opted to back the woman who defeated her to the runner-up spot behind Rishi Sunak: Liz Truss.
It’s a somewhat awkward endorsement, given how many of Truss’s prominent backers were sent out to attack Mordaunt on the airwaves. No less than three of the Foreign Secretary’s onetime Cabinet colleagues – Lord Frost, Simon Clarke and Anne-Marie Trevelyan – took aim at Mordaunt’s credentials over the course of the campaign. Frost claimed ‘she did not master the detail that was necessary’ in EU negotiations, Clarke piled in to suggest our ‘country needs a leader who is tested and ready’ while Trevelyan added ‘there have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available.’ Ouch.
Still, now all four are singing from the same hymn-sheet: that’s politics for you. It’s a reflection too of the speed with which Truss has become the frontrunner in this contest. Ten days ago she scraped through to the final two but this past week she’s become the firm favourite. That’s reflected in the number of high-profile endorsements she’s collecting too: in the past five days, four big names have come out for her from Ben Wallace on Thursday, Tom Tugendhat on Friday, Nadhim Zahawi on Sunday and now Mordaunt too.
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