Penny hits back at her critics

It’s been a bruising week for Penny Mordaunt. Six days ago she was the favourite to be Prime Minister; now she’s out of the running after a series of searing criticisms from colleagues and the press. A repeated line of attack she faced was the suggestion that she wasn’t entirely across her brief, with Lord Frost claiming he had to request Mordaunt be transferred off the Brexit negotiation

One of those making such a criticism was Anne Marie Trevelyan, the Secretary of State for International Trade. She said of Mordaunt, her departmental junior, that: ‘there have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces, yes.’ So it was a somewhat awkward spectacle in the Commons today to see the pair reunited on the frontbench for trade questions.

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And Mordaunt certainly didn’t miss the opportunity to put her critics right, including her boss who was sat just beside her. Responding to a softball question from her campaign manager Andrea Leadsom, Mordaunt told the House that ‘I’m amazed to find myself here this morning given my reported work ethic.’ In a subsequent follow-up Mordaunt made another dig at Trevelyan, saying that:

For my own part, every single time the international trade committee or other body of this House has asked me to go before it I have. I think that is the attitude of the ministerial team and we will continue to do that.

Trevelyan has missed eight appearance requests from the committee in question. Labour’s spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds didn’t fail to exploit the awkwardness, quoting Trevelyan’s comments about Mordaunt back to her. The Secretary of State replied coolly that ‘I have a fantastic team of ministers.’

When they’re available, eh Penny?