The problem with Penny

I’ve been thinking for the past couple of days about who can beat Penny Mordaunt in the contest to be the next Tory leader. Despite the shaky start to her campaign, I still think she’s the favourite. Rishi Sunak has too many people trying to stop him; most importantly, a lot of the membership. Truss has too many detractors within the parliamentary party (although she could possibly overcome this and win). Kemi Badenoch is a real possibility but has a lot of ground to make up during the course of the contest. The rest are either too underbaked, have too much baggage, or are beset by other issues.

Mordaunt’s appeal is pretty obvious: she’s articulate and outwardly confident. She hits a sweet spot between being pretty Brexit-y without being weird about it while also possessing some more traditional Tory instincts. I also don’t buy the recent notion that she’s secretly woke either; the idea that she would get into office and immediately abolish women-only spaces isn’t credible.