Penny’s Pistorius gaffe
Her leadership launch features clip of killer – then British Paralympian demands to be removed, too
PENNY Mordaunt was yesterday forced to edit her campaign launching video amid unfortunate gaffes in the first version.
The initial promotional video the junior trade minister posted online contained footage of convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius while a Paralympic athlete who also featured demanded he be removed.
She posted it on Twitter, writing: ‘Our leadership has to change. It needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship.’ An edited version was later uploaded which did not feature the Paralympic race.
Miss Mordaunt also yesterday tried to clarify her views on trans issues amid fears her liberal stance could cost her the Tory leadership.
The junior trade minister was forced on the defensive after critics highlighted that she had once said ‘trans women are women’ in the Commons. On social media on Saturday, before she had declared she was running to succeed Boris Johnson, she announced she wanted to address the question ‘do I know what a woman is?’
‘Yes I do. I am a woman,’ she wrote, adding: ‘Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female. That DOES NOT mean they are biological women.’
The MP for Portsmouth North cited her record as former minister for women and equalities including setting up an inquiry into the ‘volume of girls referred into trans services’.
Yesterday Miss Mordaunt posted a three-minute video full of images of the Union flag as well as British icons such as Spitfires and Captain Sir Tom – with the hymn I Vow To
Thee, My Country as the soundtrack. A clip from the 100m final at the 2012 London Paralympics showed Pistorius, the South African ‘blade runner’ who was later jailed for killing his partner, and British athlete Jonnie Peacock. But the winning sprinter replied to Miss Mordaunt on Twitter: ‘I officially request to be removed from this video…. Anything but blue please.’
Despite the controversy, she received the support of senior Tories including Andrea Leadsom.