Penny Mordaunt

When I want to make my children groan, I tell them my father's favourite joke. There are two eggs in a pan of boiling water. One egg says to the other: ...

She was so committed to the cause of self-ID that she was given the politician of the year award in 2019 by Pink News. This came as news to those like Liz Truss who worked with her at the time, or those like Kemi Bademoch who succeeded her, all of whom remember her as a zealot in the cause. Given we are in the middle of a crisis brought about by a budget that doesn’t add up, one of her campaign interviews needs to be looked at. No other holder of that post has been as committed or unambiguous an advocate of the idea of self-ID, that self-declared trans women fully entitled to be treated as biological women with the weight of the law behind them. This was a reference to the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Her ignorance about fundamental facts of political life is astonishing (I give her the credit of assuming she has not simply been blatantly lying). She appears to be happy to allow supporters to big this up — during the leadership campaign, for example, one MP said she had “fought in the navy”. Quite the opposite: some of her more fundamental views are horrifying, and the ease with which she adapts them in public for her own convenience is deeply troubling. All of which goes to show the paucity of political scrutiny in Britain and the superficiality of so much commentary. As a trade minister, her nickname was said to be Penny Dormant, so unwilling was she to put in the hard graft necessary in such a role. This has taken her far — to the Cabinet and to being touted as a possible (probable?) PM. Her manner is that of an ex-naval officer — brisk and to the point.