Penny Mordaunt refused to bow to pressure to pull out of the race to become Britain’s next Prime Minister on Monday morning as she raced to hoover up Boris Johnson’s supporters and force a two way vote with favourite Rishi Sunak.
In an early morning tweet, the Leader of the House of Commons praised Mr Johnson’s decision to withdraw from the Tory leadership contest on Sunday night and gave no indication she was considering following suit.
“In taking this difficult decision last night @BorisJohnson has put country before party, and party before self,” Ms Mordaunt said. “He worked to secure the mandate and the majority we now enjoy. We should put it to good use, and I know he will work with us to do so.”
Former Chancellor Mr Sunak is on course to become the next Tory leader and the UK’s Prime Minister with nearly 150 Conservative MPs publicly declaring their support for him. Ms Mordaunt has fewer than 30 and will be hoping some of Mr Johnson’s backers might now swing in behind her.
Announcing his decision to pull out of the contest, the former Prime Minister claimed he had 102 supporters but had decided that with the Conservative party so deeply split returning to Downing Street now was not the “right thing to do”.
By the time of his decision he had won the public support of around 50 Tory MPs - some way short of the threshold of 100 set by the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.
With Mr Sunak surging ahead, the pressure was on Ms Mordaunt to drop out of the race and avoid any further delay to the process. If she is able to gain the support of 100 Tory MPs then the decision will be handed to Conservative Party members in an online vote which will close on Friday.
In taking this difficult decision last night @BorisJohnson has put country before party, and party before self. He worked to secure the mandate and the majority we now enjoy.
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) October 24, 2022
We should put it to good use, and I know he will work with us to do so.
Conservative MP Damian Green said he is confident Ms Mordaunt will reach the required number of endorsements to force a party vote with Mr Sunak.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are a lot of people who weren't declaring publicly what they were doing, I mean, indeed, Penny's numbers are well above the published figures already."
He added: "It's certainly way, way above the published number and we're confident of getting to 100 before the deadline of 2pm and putting the case to colleagues that Penny is the person best positioned to unify the party, she's got support from all wings of the party already and we can then get on with the important job for the country of the various serious problems we're facing."
Financial markets responded positively to the news that Mr Johnson had pulled out of the contest to become PM with the pound rising 0.6 percentage points against the US dollar in early morning trading to reach $1.13.
With a critical fiscal statement still slated for next Monday, Mr Sunak is promising to deliver financial stability after the mayhem of Ms Truss’s short reign in No 10. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt declared his public support for Mr Sunak as leader on Sunday.
Home Secretary Grant Shapps, another Sunak backer, said it was Ms Mordaunt’s decision on whether she should now pull out, telling Sky News: “What I do know is that Rishi enjoys the support of a large number of Conservative MPs, and there's a very high nomination threshold of 100.
“Rishi doesn't think that it's in the bag. He's speaking to colleagues this morning. He's working very hard to attract those supporters who were perhaps with Boris Johnson previously.
“But look, I'll leave it to Penny. She's a terrific colleague. Let's see what happens but we won't have to wait very long. Because by this lunchtime, I think specifically two o'clock we will know the answer to all of this. And we'll see whether it does indeed go to a second round, which means out to the membership in the country or whether indeed, it's all over at that stage, but nothing taken for granted by Rishi at this stage.”
