A glum looking Penny Mordaunt stormed out of Downing Street tonight after failing to land a top job in Rishi Sunak‘s reshuffle despite speculation her recent rise to prominence would lead to a senior post.
The Commons Leader and MP for Portsmouth appeared to pay the price for pushing the new PM to the wire in a close race to take power, which kept commentators on edge until the last moment.
As he set out his new Cabinet designed to bring warring wings of the Tory Party together this evening, Mordaunt was confirmed in her relatively junior current job of Commons Leader. The post is one which oversees government business in parliament – neither a promotion nor demotion – which may disappoint the ambitious centrist.
Speculation has been rife that Mordaunt had been angling for a far more senior role, perhaps foreign secretary.
But her decision not to withdraw from the leadership race until two minutes before the deadline yesterday seems to have counted against her.
Leadership candidates…
