Penny Mordaunt resists calls to give Rishi Sunak a clean coronation

Penny Mordaunt resists calls to stand down to give Rishi Sunak a clean coronation as Boris Johnson sensationally quits leadership race

• Penny Mordaunt is only opposition to Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership battle 
• After Boris Johnson’s dramatic withdrawal, she confirmed she would continue
• She had rejected Mr Johnson’s plea to pull out and publicly back him instead 
• Source close to her said she is the ‘unifying candidate’ and is ‘committed’ 

Penny Mordaunt was last night adamant that she would not back down amid pressure for her to drop her Tory leadership bid and hand Rishi Sunak a clean coronation.

After Boris Johnson dramatically bowed out of the contest last night, the Leader of the Commons was the only other declared candidate.

After Mr Johnson’s withdrawal from the contest, a source close to Miss Mordaunt said: ‘Yes she will continue as a candidate. She is the unifying candidate who is most likely to keep the wings of the Conservative Party together. Penny is in the race to win it and she’s committed to the contest.’

But with lagging support from MPs, there were serious questions about whether Miss Mordaunt would secure the 100 nominations needed by 2pm today to make it on to the ballot paper.

Earlier in the day, she rejected a plea from Mr Johnson to pull out of the competition and lend him her support by publicly backing the former prime minister.

Penny Mordaunt (pictured) was last night adamant that she would not back down amid pressure for her to drop her Tory leadership bid and hand Rishi Sunak a clean coronation.

Mr Johnson (pictured arriving back in London on Friday) urged the Leader of the Commons to to pull out of the competition by publicly backing him

Iain Duncan Smith: My party seems to have a death wish 

Sir Iain Duncan Smith questioned yesterday whether anyone could lead the Conservative Party in its current ‘split and divided’ state.

The former Tory leader said his colleagues ‘seemed to have a death wish’ and could face over a decade in opposition if MPs fail to back whoever is elected this week.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Iain said: ‘I desperately want my party to settle down… I just question whether any leader is going to be supported in quite the way they should be.’

Sir Iain Duncan Smith (pictured) questioned yesterday whether anyone could lead the Conservative Party in its current ‘split and divided’ state

Sir Iain, himself ousted by his party after only two years as leader, later told the Mail: ‘It’s not the leaders who I have a problem with, it’s my own parliamentary party which seems to have a death wish. We are so split and divided and already some of my colleagues are suggesting they won’t support the result of this election. It’s ridiculous behaviour.’

Last night the Chingford and Wood Green MP was yet to declare which candidate he would back. But he vowed to support ‘anyone who is elected’, adding: ‘We can’t mess around any longer.’

Sources said, in a sign of his scrambling around for votes, Mr Johnson offered her a Cabinet job in return for her support. Instead she flipped the request on its head and suggested that the former PM pull out and back her in a run-off with Mr Sunak.

The pair are understood to have spoken several times in recent days, with Miss Mordaunt urging Mr Johnson not to run as she believed he was unable to unify the party, a point he conceded last night. 

But Miss Mordaunt, who came third in the leadership race to replace Mr Johnson this summer, had only around 24 MPs publicly backing her yesterday.

Before Mr Johnson’s intervention last night, several MPs had been encouraging her to give her support to another candidate and take many of her backers with her. But last night sources close to Miss Mordaunt insisted she would reach the threshold of 100 MPs and would not pull out of the race.

They told the Mail: ‘The numbers are far better than reported. A lot of our supporters are emailing in their nominations and not publicly declaring.’ It came as she failed to give any promises in four key spending areas. The Leader of the Commons refused to make any commitments about whether she would cut healthcare spending or maintain the pensions triple lock.

She also refused to guarantee defence spending would increase to 3 per cent of GDP by 2030 and whether benefits would be cut in real terms or rise with inflation. 

Asked about her tax and spending plans on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said five times that she was ‘not being drawn’ into any details. 

Repeatedly pressed about her plans, she said: ‘I was that halfway house [during the last leadership race]. I recognised that people needed support. I suggested… things that would not exacerbate inflation, targeted and measured tax cuts.’

In an apparent attack on Liz Truss, she added: ‘I believe in evidence-based policy making. I won’t be imposing a policy that I’ve just made up in a room by myself.’ It risks opening her up to fresh accusations that she is unsuitable to be PM because she is not always across the detail – a criticism made by several former bosses.

But Miss Mordaunt insisted she was more than qualified to be PM as she attacked Mr Sunak, pointing out that she was a minister before her rival entered Parliament in 2015. 

She told Sky News: ‘I have held nine ministerial roles, three in Cabinet. I was a minister before Rishi Sunak was even elected to Parliament, but more importantly, I’ve got real life experience.’

Rishi Sunak (pictured) and Miss Mordaunt are the only candidates left after Boris Johnson’s shock withdrawal

Suggesting Mr Sunak’s wealth also made him a less suitable candidate, she said: ‘I know what people are going through right now because I’ve been there. I know what it is like to scrabble together your pennies.’

Her supporters include Maria Miller, a former culture secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, a former business secretary.

Damian Green, a Cabinet minister under Theresa May, insisted Miss Mordaunt would get many more votes, as more than 100 Tory MPs out of 357 keep their powder dry about who they’re backing.

He told Sky News Miss Mordaunt was the ‘best candidate to unify the party’, adding: ‘What we desperately need is a period of calm, stable, competent government and to do that you need a united party and Penny is attracting support from all wings of the party.’

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