Penny Mordaunt

The Right Honourable Penny Mordaunt FRSA MP
Official portrait, 2019
Minister of State for Trade Policy
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 September 2021
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Greg Hands
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 1 May 2019 – 24 July 2019
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Gavin Williamson
Succeeded by	Ben Wallace
Secretary of State for International Development
In office 9 November 2017 – 1 May 2019
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Priti Patel
Succeeded by	Rory Stewart
Minister for Women and Equalities
In office 30 April 2018 – 24 July 2019
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Amber Rudd
Succeeded by	Amber Rudd
Junior ministerial offices Paymaster General In office 13 February 2020 – 16 September 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson Preceded by Oliver Dowden Succeeded by Michael Ellis Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health In office 15 July 2016 – 9 November 2017 Prime Minister Theresa May Preceded by Justin Tomlinson Succeeded by Sarah Newton Minister of State for the Armed Forces In office 11 May 2015 – 15 July 2016 Prime Minister David Cameron Preceded by Mark François Succeeded by Mike Penning Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government In office 14 July 2014 – 11 May 2015 Prime Minister David Cameron Preceded by Nick Boles Succeeded by James Wharton
Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Sarah McCarthy-Fry
Majority	15,780 (34.4%)
Personal details
Born	Penelope Mary Mordaunt (1973-03-04) 4 March 1973 Torquay, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Paul Murray ​ ​ (m. 1999; div. 2000)​
Education	Oaklands Catholic School
Alma mater	University of Reading (BA)
Website	pennymordaunt.com
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Years of service	2010–2019
Rank	Acting Sub-Lieutenant (Honorary Captain)
Unit	Royal Naval Reserve

Penelope Mary Mordaunt FRSA (/ˈmɔːrdənt/; born 4 March 1973) is a British politician who has been serving as Minister of State for Trade Policy since 2021. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) representing Portsmouth North since 2010. From 2017 to 2019, she served in Theresa May's Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, and as Secretary of State for Defence from May to July 2019.

Mordaunt read philosophy at the University of Reading, before working in the public relations industry. She held roles within the Conservative Party under party leaders John Major and William Hague, and also worked for George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. Mordaunt was elected to the House of Commons in May 2010. Under the coalition government of David Cameron, she served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Decentralisation from 2014 to 2015. After the 2015 general election, Cameron promoted her to Minister of State for the Armed Forces, the first woman to hold the post. Mordaunt supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. Following Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister, Mordaunt was appointed Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health. In 2017, following the resignation of Priti Patel, she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development. She also served as Minister for Women and Equalities from 2018 to 2019.

In May 2019, Mordaunt was appointed Secretary of State for Defence, replacing Gavin Williamson, becoming the first woman to hold the post. She served as Defence Secretary for 85 days before returning to the backbenches, having been removed from the position by the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In the February 2020 reshuffle, she re-entered government as Paymaster General. In the 2021 reshuffle, she was appointed Minister of State for Trade Policy. Mordaunt entered the leadership contest to succeed Johnson as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister in 2022, but was eliminated in the penultimate round of voting among Conservative MPs.

Early life and education

Mordaunt was born on 4 March 1973 in Torbay, Devon. The daughter of a former paratrooper, she states she was named after the Arethusa-class cruiser HMS Penelope. Her father, John Mordaunt, born at Hilsea Barracks, served in the Parachute Regiment before retraining as a teacher, and later a youth worker for Hampshire Council. Her mother, Jennifer (née Snowden), was a special needs teacher at several Purbrook schools. Through her mother she is a relative of Philip Snowden, the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer. The actress Dame Angela Lansbury is her grandmother's cousin, and she is thus distantly related to the former Labour leader George Lansbury. Mordaunt has two brothers: her twin, James, and a younger brother, Edward. Mordaunt was educated at Oaklands Roman Catholic Comprehensive School in Waterlooville, Hampshire and studied drama at the Victoryland Theatre School.

Mordaunt was 15 when her mother died of breast cancer and, following her twin brother in leaving school, she became her younger brother Edward's primary caregiver. The following year her father was also diagnosed with cancer, from which he recovered. To pay her way through her studies, Mordaunt worked in a Johnson & Johnson factory, and became a magician's assistant to Will Ayling, a past president of the Portsmouth and District Magic Circle and of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Mordaunt has attributed her interest in politics to her experiences whilst working in hospitals and orphanages of Romania while that country was in the aftermath of the 1989 revolution.

Mordaunt read philosophy at the University of Reading, graduating in 1995 with upper second class honours. She was the first member of her family to attend university. Mordaunt was active in student politics and served as president of the Reading University Students' Union.

Private career

After graduation, Mordaunt's employment was focused on public relations in various sectors. Under Prime Minister John Major she was Head of Youth for the Conservative Party, before working for two years as Head of Broadcasting for the party under party leader William Hague (1999–2001). She worked as a communications specialist for the Freight Transport Association (now Logistics UK) from 1997 to 1999. In 2000, she worked briefly as Head of Foreign Press for George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

She was Communications Director for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from 2001 to 2003, before leaving to set up a new Anglo-American website called 'virtualconservatives'. Lord Moylan, who was the deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea council where Mordaunt was hired as a Director of Communications, said: "we had to get rid of her after a few months because she was incompetent."

From 2004 to 2006, she was a director of Media Intelligence Partners.

Mordaunt worked for the Bush campaign again in 2004. She was a director at the Community Fund, which merged with the New Opportunities Fund to create the Big Lottery Fund, and created the Veterans Reunited programme, enabling service men and women to visit World War II battlefields and be involved in commemorative events. Mordaunt worked for the Big Lottery Fund from 2003 to 2005. In 2006, she became one of six directors at charity Diabetes UK, a role she held until 2009.

Parliamentary career

In November 2003, Mordaunt was selected as Conservative candidate to contest Portsmouth North in the 2005 general election. She attained a 5.5% swing towards the Conservatives, but lost to Labour candidate Sarah McCarthy-Fry by 1,139 votes. A critic of women-only shortlists, Mordaunt worked after the 2005 election as chief of staff for David Willetts's aborted leadership campaign.

Mordaunt was re-selected in January 2006 to contest Portsmouth North at the 2010 general election. At the election, she won the seat with an 8.6% swing from Labour, giving her a 7,289 majority. She was re-elected at the 2015, 2017, and 2019 general elections.

After her election in 2010, she was a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014.

Mordaunt served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Decentralisation from 2014 to 2015, prior to being appointed Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 2015, the first woman to hold the post.

Major Robert Campbell, who was investigated and exonerated over the death of an Iraqi in 2003, criticised Mordaunt for backing the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, stating: "Now she is depicting herself as the armed forces champion but she never did anything for me. She needs to apologise for how we were treated. She failed us as armed forces champion."

During Mordaunt's time as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local government, she was accused by the Fire Brigades Union "of misleading MPs over assurances given to firefighters from fire authorities regarding what would happen to their pensions if they fail fitness tests". This dispute led to strike action by firefighters over the increase of retirement age.

When receiving the Speech of the Year award at The Spectator magazine's Parliamentarian of the Year Awards in November 2014, Mordaunt said that she had delivered a speech in the House of Commons just before the Easter recess in 2013 on poultry welfare so as to use the word "cock", as a forfeit for a misdemeanour during Naval Reserve training. She used the word "cock" six times and "lay" or "laid" five times. Following her comments, she was accused by Labour MP Kate Hoey of trivialising parliament.

In 2014, Mordaunt proposed the loyal address in reply to the Queen's speech from the throne.

In 2014, Mordaunt appeared on reality television programme Splash! Although her Labour opponents criticised the media appearance, questioning whether her focus should instead have been on her constituency work, Mordaunt stated that the response was overwhelmingly positive and defended her appearance, stating that she was donating all of her £10,000 appearance fee plus any additional sponsorship to charity; £7,000 towards the renovation of her local lido and the rest to four armed services charities.

In the EU membership referendum, Mordaunt supported Brexit. During the referendum campaign Mordaunt said the United Kingdom did not have a veto to Turkey joining the European Union. Given this is a provision of the Treaty on European Union, Mordaunt was accused of 'lying' over the matter. She repeated the claim during her Conservative Party leadership campaign in 2022.

In June 2020, in response to vandalism of war memorials, Mordaunt stated: "I would like to suggest that for some found guilty of vandalising such memorials they might benefit from some time spent with our service personnel – perhaps at a battle camp. That might give them a new appreciation of just what these people go through for their sakes."

In June 2020, Mordaunt produced a proposal for a pair of ships with the primary role of specialising in trade, research, and humanitarian work. The vessels were to be funded by private, research, commercial and charitable funds, in partnership with the UK's Overseas Development Assistance budget. The vessels could also be used as "cost effective and secure" accommodation for members of the Royal Family on visits, so would effectively be successor to the Royal Yacht Britannia which had been decommissioned in 1997. Mordaunt said of it, “We know that industry would also support as would a growing coalition of commercial and trade ventures, research organisations, shipbuilders and ship support companies, maritime training organisations and medical and health projects”. The director of the Global Britain Programme at the Henry Jackson Society, said: "These new ships will help project Britain's image around the world".

Secretary of State for International Development

Mordaunt on a visit to Kutupalong in Bangladesh in November 2017

Mordaunt was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 9 November 2017, after Priti Patel resigned.

In February 2018, an investigation by The Times newspaper revealed allegations of misconduct by Oxfam staff operating in Haiti, in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. Mordaunt argued that Oxfam, which had received £32m in Government funds in the previous financial year, had failed in its "moral leadership" over the scandal. She also said that Oxfam did "absolutely the wrong thing" by not reporting the detail of the allegations to the Government. Mordaunt felt it was important for aid organisations to report offences because she suspected that there were paedophiles "targeting" the charity sector in order to carry out predatory activities.

Minister for Women and Equalities

She became Minister for Women and Equalities in April 2018, replacing Amber Rudd, who had resigned following the Windrush scandal. In July 2018 she became the first minister to use sign language in the House of Commons, to applause from all sides. In March 2019, she was criticised in a newspaper article by Maya Forstater, who claimed she had not answered to some Mumsnet users' satisfaction questions on sex and gender during a webchat held on International Women's Day.

In Parliament she previously sat on the Privacy and Injunctions (Joint Committee), the Defence Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee and the Committees on Arms Export Controls (formerly Quadripartite Committee).

Secretary of State for Defence

Mordaunt in May 2019

On 1 May 2019, Mordaunt was appointed as the first-ever female Secretary of State for Defence following the dismissal of Gavin Williamson. Boris Johnson sacked Mordaunt as Defence Secretary. She left the Government on 24 July 2019.

Ministerial career

In a cabinet reshuffle in February 2020, Mordaunt re-entered the Government, joining the Cabinet Office as Paymaster General in succession to Oliver Dowden. She was the UK alternate co-chair of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee. She was made Minister of State for Trade Policy in the 2021 cabinet reshuffle. Lord Frost has been strongly critical of her time as his deputy in the Brexit negotiations, saying he has "grave reservations" about her being Prime Minister and that "she did not master the detail that was necessary when we were in negotiations".

Conservative Party leadership contest 2022

For broader coverage of this topic, see 2022 Conservative Party leadership election (UK) § Campaign.

Mordaunt's 2022 leadership logo

In July 2022, Mordaunt launched an ultimately unsuccessful bid to be the next Conservative leader and consequently UK prime minister. An early promotional video published by her campaign attracted criticism for featuring footage of former professional sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. Athlete Jonnie Peacock requested to be removed from the same video published by her campaign. Mordaunt's campaign edited the video to remove footage of Peacock and Pistorius, and later issued a third edition of the video with footage of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox removed, following a request from Cox's family.

In 2018, Mordaunt, the then women and equalities minister, told MPs that "trans men are men, trans women are women" at the launch of a consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act. On 8 July, the day after Boris Johnson announced that he would stand aside as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister, it was reported in the Daily Telegraph that several Conservative activists had criticised Mordaunt "for her pro-trans stance". On the following day, shortly before she launched her bid for the leadership of the Conservative party, Mordaunt responded to the question "Do I know what a woman is?" by writing on Twitter: "I am biologically a woman. If I have a hysterectomy or mastectomy, I am still a woman. And I am legally a woman. Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female. That DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me." The Spectator noted Mordaunt's earlier stance on trans issues, and was critical of what it called her "cowardice" in changing her publicly stated views, being "willing to toss them overboard at her earliest convenience" during her leadership campaign. The Daily Telegraph described her as a "socially liberal Brexiteer".

Mordaunt was one of eight contenders who achieved the necessary 20 nominations by the 12 July deadline. Three other candidates had to drop out earlier that day.

On July 20th, Mordaunt was eliminated from the fifth round of the leadership competition after failing to secure sufficient support from Conservative MPs.

Parliamentary support

See also: Election results in full and MPs who have publicly endorsed Mordaunt

The following table shows how many MPs supported Mordaunt during each election round:

Date	Votes Received	%	Position / Candidates	Ref
13 July 2022	67	18.7	2 / 8
14 July 2022	83	23.3	2 / 6
18 July 2022	82	22.9	2 / 5
19 July 2022	92	25.9	2 / 4
20 July 2022	105	29.3	3 / 3

Views and activities

Northern Ireland

Mordaunt voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. She has said in the House of Commons that the Northern Ireland protocol creates unique disadvantages for Northern Ireland.

Homeopathy

Mordaunt has repeatedly advocated that the British National Health Service should fund the availability of homeopathy. In 2010, she signed a Parliamentary Early Day Motion that claimed there was "overwhelming anecdotal evidence that homeopathy is effective" and called for the government to "maintain a policy of allowing health commissions to refer to homeopathic doctors and approved homeopaths".

Muslim Council of Britain Meeting

Since 2009, Labour, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and Conservative governments have maintained a policy of "non-engagement" with the Muslim Council of Britain due to allegations the group doesn't represent the British Muslim community and claims that members of the council had made 'favourable' remarks about extremists in the past.

As Paymaster General, Mordaunt met with the Secretary General of the MCB, Zara Mohammed, which Dr Alan Mendoza of the Henry Jackson Society described as "shocking". A Government spokesperson told The Jewish Chronicle: "The UK government has a long-standing policy of not engaging with the MCB and that has not changed."

Naval service

Mordaunt was a member of the Royal Naval Reserve from 2010 until 2019. From 2010 until 2015, she served as an acting sub-lieutenant, at shore establishment HMS King Alfred on Whale Island, Portsmouth. In May 2015 she was placed onto Reserve 'List 6', a category for personnel unable to meet any training commitment in excess of a year; she had "no annual training commitment and received no remuneration" from the Navy during this time. She remained on List 6 until April 2019, at which point she left the Reserve. She was made an honorary commander in April 2019, and an honorary captain on 30 June 2021.

In 2022, George Freeman MP falsely claimed that Mordaunt had fought in the Navy, with a Navy source responding by saying that Mordaunt is not currently "a trained or paid reservist, she's never qualified or commissioned".

Personal life

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, she has been a member of the British Astronomical Association, and as of 2013 was chair of the Wymering Manor Trust in Portsmouth. She ran the League of Friends visiting team at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth for eight years. She is a patron of the Victoria Cross Trust, and Enable Ability, a disability charity based in Portsmouth, in addition to being a Scouting ambassador.

Mordaunt met Paul Murray when they were both students at the University of Reading and married him in 1999, but this ended in divorce the following year. She was later in a long-term relationship with Ian Lyon, a classical singer. Lyon had a daughter from a previous relationship. Mordaunt's hobbies include astronomy, painting, dance and music. She owns four Burmese cats. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine she took a Ukrainian refugee into her home.

Publications

• Greater: Britain after the storm (with Chris Lewis, 2021)

External links

• Official website
• Official leadership bid website
• Penny Mordaunt at the Conservative Party
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou