Mordaunt: Truss isn’t ‘hiding’ under a desk

Oh dear. Liz Truss ducked the opportunity to come to the House to explain Jeremy Hunt’s U-turn earlier today. So instead it was the turn of Penny Mordaunt – ‘the real PM’, her supporters jibe – to come to the Commons and defend the shambles of the past fortnight. Mordaunt, in her capacity as the Leader of the House, did her best to mount a defence of her crumbling leader, though she herself did stumble on occasion.

Labour MP Stella Creasy – the embodiment of progressive orthodoxy – rose to castigate her opposite number. She suggested instead that political attention should on Ebola in Africa rather than Tory domestic woes before claiming that the PM is ‘cowering’ under her desk. Mordaunt replied by countering that ‘the Prime Minister is not under a desk’ to laughter from across the House.

As Jessica Elgot of the Guardian notes: ‘Penny Mordaunt knew exactly how that desk line would land, this is not her first rodeo.’