Penny Mordaunt favourite to be next PM after huge endorsement from Tory MPs – now vote for your winner in our poll
THE race to be the next PM was down to six hopefuls yesterday — as Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt topped the first round of voting by Tory MPs.
But bookies said Brexiteer Penny, 49, was favourite after she thumped rivals in a poll of Conservative Party members.
The first round of voting yesterday saw Rishi Sunak leading with 88 backers - short of where Boris Johnson and Theresa May were in their opening salvoes.
He is now facing a battle to win the final overall ballot of MPs, considered crucial to his chances.
The early momentum instead switched to Ms Mordaunt who got a larger-than-expected 67 backers - leaving Liz Truss trailing on 50.
Kemi Badenoch - a rank outsider a few days ago - surged to 40 while centre-ground candidate Tom Tugendhat got 37 and Suella Braverman scraped through with 32.
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Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and ex-Cabinet big beast Jeremy Hunt were dumped out after failing to get enough support.
Bookies said there had been a rush of cash on Ms Mordaunt, an ex-Defence Secretary who is currently a trade minister.
Will Woodhams, CEO of Fitzdares, said: “We’ve seen a surge of flutters on Mordaunt today as true-blue punters lash themselves to the good ship Penny. She’s nailed-on favourite now as Sunak seems to be stuttering and the rest of the right still look like a rabble.”
Mordaunt is currently odds-on at 8/13, with Mr Sunak at 10/3 and Ms Truss at 4/1.
And in another huge boost to her campaign, a new YouGov poll found she is the runaway favourite with Tory members.
She tops the poll with 27 per cent of support - followed by Ms Badenoch on 15 per cent, then Mr Sunak and Ms Truss tied on 13 per cent.
A survey of more than 800 members also found Ms Mordaunt crushes Mr Sunak in a head-to-head by 67 per cent to 28 — and she beats Ms Truss by 55 to 37.
At her sweaty campaign launch yesterday morning, the red-hot favourite declared she is the only “candidate that Labour fear”.
She also hit out at claims she is too woke to be PM.
Meanwhile, Tory MP Bob Stewart bizarrely hailed her bravery - for doing a belly flop on TV diving show Splash!
He told Times Radio: “I saw her legs, they were really blue. And then she went in and did it again, exactly the same thing.”
In a day of sniping, rival camps blamed dirty tricks for their downfall.
Mr Hunt, who lost the support of two MPs who nominated him 24 hours previously, tweeted: “A gentle word of advice to the remaining candidates: smears and attacks may bring short-term tactical gain but always backfire long-term.”
Mr Sunak was also criticised for enlisting Tory master-of-the-dark-arts Gavin Williamson as his unofficial enforcer.
A Tory source said: “Sir Gavin Williamson ruined the lives of millions of school children and repeatedly embarrassed himself as Education Secretary.
“It is for Tory MPs to decide whether Rishi Sunak is exercising good judgement in being associated with this man.”
As the race heats up, there was growing pressure for the right to back one candidate to beat Ms Mordaunt or Mr Sunak.
Another vote takes place today, with Ms Braverman looking the most likely to be knocked out.
Backers of Ms Truss are urging the Attorney General’s supporters to “unite the right”.
One source said: “For the good of the party, they need to row in behind Liz.”
She will formally launch her campaign today, telling supporters: “My mission is to make our country an aspiration nation, where every child, every person has the best opportunity to succeed. I am ready to be Prime Minister on day one.”
She will vow never to let down children in the North like her peers in Leeds were, insisting she will “level up in a Conservative way”.
She also told The Spectator magazine she would vote to leave the EU if there was a referendum today, after voting Remain in 2016.
Friends: Has a number of veteran Leavers on her side - including Bernard Jenkin and Sir Desmond Swayne.
Enemies: The European Convention of Human Rights, which she wants Britain to quit.
Skeletons in the closet? Even the right wing of the party think some of her hardline stances are too much.
Ta-X Factor? Wants to cut VAT on fuel and energy bills to help hard up Brits.
Career high: Quitting in protest of Theresa May’s draft Brexit deal back in 2018.
Career low: Saying the naughtiest thing she’s ever done is eat a whole pack of digestives.
Tom Tugendhat
Backed Remain. A veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq who served as an intelligence officer, he now wants to serve the nation as PM with a squeaky-clean slate.
Friends: Red Wall hero Jake Berry and Trade Chief Anne Marie Trevelyn are on his team.
Enemies: Brexiteers who believe he still wants to take Britain back into the EU.
Skeletons in the closet: Not-so-secretly holds dual British and French citizenship - which critics will use to attack him.
Ta-X Factor? Wants to give both families and firms extra tax breaks to boost the economy.
Career high: Shot through the chin and chest while on mission in 10-hour gunfight in Iraq – and miraculously survived.
Career low: Backbencher who has never made it onto the ministerial ladder.
Kemi Badenoch
Backed Brexit. Straight-talking rising star has marked herself as the anti-woke, small state candidate taking Westminster by storm.
Friends: King-maker Michael Gove and a string of ministers have thrown their weight behind her.
Enemies: The work-shy Whitehall civil service.
Skeletons in the closet: To be fair, she has made no attempts to hide her plans to slash spending - admitting she wants to ditch winter fuel allowance for better-off Brits.
Ta-X Factor? Wants to lower taxes overall but has vowed to dodge a tax bidding war race to the bottom.
Career high: Fighting establishment wokies trying to rewrite history and rip up the curriculum.
Career low: Faced a backlash for dubbing a journalist “creepy” for asking probing questions.
Liz Truss
Backed Remain. No-nonsense Foreign Secretary reckons she’s the heir to Margaret Thatcher - and even posed on a tank to prove it.
Friends: Cabinet big-beasts including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries and Kwasi Kwarteng have all come out to back her.
Enemies: Britain’s judiciary after an icy 11 months as Justice Sec.
Skeletons in the closet: Affair with an ex-Tory MP threatened to de-rail her career back when she was a candidate.
Ta-X Factor? Promises tax cuts from day one to help the cost of living crisis, and will ditch National Insurance rise.
Career high: Hailed after sealing deal to get Brit Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe out of hellish jail in Iran.
Career low: Dire conference speech about pork markets and cheese tanked with Tories in 2014.
Penny Mordaunt
Backed Brexit. The one-time magician’s assistant and Tory grassroots darling, known for her barnstorming speeches savaging Labour in the Commons
Friends: The Navy, who she serves as a reservist. Brexit-supporting ex-Cabinet ministers David Davis and Andrea Leadsom are also fans.
Enemies: Insiders dubbed her ‘Penny Dormant’ for shunning ministerial international trade trips.
Skeletons in the closet: Criticised for changing her tune over opinions held on trans rights and gender issues.
Ta-X Factor? Vowed to slash fuel in half to help hard-up drivers.
Career high: Appointment as Defence Secretary in the Theresa May Government.
Career low: Slammed for saying she doesn’t like the legendary telly show, Dad’s Army.
Rishi Sunak
Backed Brexit. Slick ex-Chancellor whose resignation helped end the reign of Boris as PM.
Friends: Cabinet heavyweights Dom Raab and Steve Barclay. Much loved by his constituents.
Enemies: Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who is very cross about his role in BoJo’s demise.
Skeletons in the closet: Will hope they’re all out there - though his family wealth remains a stick for opponents to beat him with.
Ta-X Factor? Refusing to cut a penny until sky-high inflation comes down - but says it’s ‘when not if’ he slashes the tax burden.
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Career high: Won plaudits for his furlough scheme and Eat Out to Help Out in 2020.
Career low: Getting fined over attending PM’s birthday party, exposure of his wife’s now rescinded non-dom status, and the fact he held a US green card while a Government minister.
Pen's ‘no Willie’
PENNY Mordaunt moved to dismiss claims that she is too woke to be PM by finally saying a woman can’t have a willy.
The Tory leadership frontrunner had previously sparked upset by saying “a trans woman is a woman”.
But she said: “I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said: “Every Prime Minister needs a Willie’. A woman like me doesn’t have one.”
The Iron Lady - Britain’s first ever female PM - once famously said “every Prime Minister needs a Willie”.
Willie Whitelaw was Maggie’s right hand man and chief enforcer.
Ms Mordaunt added yesterday: “I’m a woman. I'm biologically a woman.
“If you have been in the Royal Navy, and you compete physically against men, you understand the biological difference between them.”