Penny Mordaunt declaring another run for PM has people asking who she’ll throw under bus this time
Penny Mordaunt leaves following the weekly cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. (getty)
Political roundabout Penny Mordaunt has announced yet another bid to become leader of the Conservative Party despite her previous run being marred by anti-trans rhetoric.
Prime minister Liz Truss announced she was resigning on Thursday (20 October) after just 44 days in office. It triggered yet another Tory leadership race with the winner securing the keys to No 10 after a contest over the summer fractured an already-divisive party.
However, the rules have changed somewhat this time with candidates needing the back of 100 MPs in order to make the final ballot. Candidates have until 2pm on Monday to secure the nominations.
Mordaunt is the first MP to join the race to replace Truss, the UK’s briefest officeholder, with a winner due to be announced within a week. Rishi Sunak, who came second in the leadership just a few weeks ago, and Boris Johnson, who resigned in disgrace just a few months ago, are also expected to run for office in a system which is undemocratic, at best, and tyrannical at worst.
Mordaunt announced her candidacy in a tweet saying she intended to “deliver our pledges and win the next [general election]”.
“I’ve been encouraged by support from colleagues who a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest,” she added on Twitter.
This is despite almost every poll showing the general public are clamouring for a general election now, with Labour set to receive an unprecedented landslide victory regardless of who next takes the reigns of the Tory party.
Penny Mordaunt’s first leadership bid
Penny Mordaunt arrives ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street. (Getty)
Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt launched her first bid to become leader of the Conservative Party and unelected prime minister in July with a complete u-turn on her views of trans rights.
Prior to the race, Mordaunt had been lauded as a valiant supporter of LGBTQ+ freedoms and equality, but completely disregarded this stance in favour of insipid anti-trans viewpoints.
The leader of the House of Commons and former equalities minister (no, seriously) made several baseless claims in an incredibly disappointing Twitter thread on 10 July, using anti-trans dog whistles to court the so-called gender critical vote.
“I am biologically a woman,” she wrote. “If I have a hysterectomy or mastectomy, I am still 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.”
I hope in, in the next few days we’ll able to discuss how we get our economy growing again and enable our citizens to live well. Right now, I’d like to address another question that I’ve been asked: pic.twitter.com/OImF6kUVzx
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) July 9, 2022
Her shamelessly obvious tactics were not lost on pro-LGBTQ+ activists, who called her out for the sudden shift in policy.
“We can all see what you’re doing,” one user said, while another wrote: “Well, that’s disappointing.”
Shockingly, attempting to appeal to a transphobic voter base isn’t a winning manoeuvre. Mordaunt eventually lost the race, coming in third behind Sunak and eventual-winner Truss.
One of the biggest issues with her candidacy was her unwillingness to properly commit to a particular viewpoint, meaning all sides of the political spectrum believed she was insincere.
So-called gender critical pundits accused her of being a “woke” politician in disguise, while actual decent human beings saw her blatant disregard for trans rights for what it is.
LGBTQ+ activists ‘cannot trust’ Penny Mordaunt’s support
Whether she’ll make the final ballot remains to be seen. While she’s the first to declare, she’s by far the favourite, with fewer backers than Johnson and Sunak.
Despite her car-crash first run for leader, the LGBT+ Conservatives group gave Mordaunt – who said she challenges the “trans orthodoxy” and joked that real women “don’t have a willy” – the “ally of the year” award at the Conservative Party conference.
The general reaction from LGBTQ+ activists on her announced candidacy painted a different picture, however.
“After throwing the LGBTQ+ community under the bus at the last leadership challenge, you cannot be trusted to support us,” one user said.
Another remarked: “Which minority are you going to throw under the bus this time? Or will it just be trans people again?”
Journalist Ash Sarkar sarcastically joked that, if she had a vote in the leadership race, she would back Penny Mordaunt “who pushed the lie that Turkey was about to join the EU”.
