Another boss blasts ‘Part-time Penny’
Tory hopeful is accused of shirking duties to focus on bid for leadership
PENNY Mordaunt was accused by her Cabinet boss yesterday of shirking her ministerial duties to plot her leadership campaign.
Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan claimed that the junior minister, who works in her department, had left colleagues to ‘pick up the pieces’.
The extraordinary broadside comes after rival campaigns branded the trade minister ‘Part-time Penny’.
Mrs Trevelyan, who was supporting Tom Tugendhat in the leadership race until he was knocked out last night, launched her scathing attack during a live radio interview on LBC. ‘We all do our jobs in different ways,’ she said. ‘Understanda
bly, perhaps, now it’s clear, Penny has for the last few months spent some of her time focused on preparing her leadership campaign, for which I have utmost respect, that’s how this system works.’
She added: ‘There have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces.’
Mrs Trevelyan said she hopes Mr Tugendhat will get another chance to run for the leadership after he failed in his current attempt.
‘He has this extraordinary ability to bring people together to work with him who would not otherwise work together,’ she said ahead of the last night’s third round ballot.
‘I think it’s a genuine gift and I wanted the rest of the world to see much more of it.
‘I hope that there will be a future time when he can lead the party.’
Miss Mordaunt has been victim of a series of hostile briefings in recent days as rivals have questioned her work ethic, as well as claiming she is too woke amid scrutiny on her record on trans rights. At the weekend, one of her former bosses said she left a job because she was so ‘incompetent’ that she couldn’t organise a tea party in a park, ‘the Tory equivalent of a p***-up in a brewery’.
Lord Moylan said the Tory leadership hopeful quit the role of head of communications for Kensington and Chelsea Council in London because she ‘couldn’t do the job’.
The Conservative peer, a former diplomat who was deputy leader of the council when Miss Mordaunt was hired in June 2001, said: ‘We hired her to be director of comms and... she was incompebe tent,’ he said. ‘My recollection is she was never on top of anything – even to the point of organising the Tory equivalent of a p***-up in a brewery, a tea party in Holland Park. She couldn’t even do that.
There was no leadership or management grip at all. She was clueless. She didn’t stay because she couldn’t do the job.’
Former Brexit minister Lord Frost said he asked for Miss Mordaunt to replaced as his junior minister during talks with the EU last year.
A source at the Department for International Trade, where Miss Mordaunt works, last week labelled her ‘Part-time Penny’ for an allegedly lax approach to work.
‘Penny has often been missing at the crucial moments,’ the source said. ‘It feels like she’s been a parttimer and clearly has been focusing most of her efforts on prepping a leadership campaign.’
The source said Miss Mordaunt is responsible for state-by- state US trade deals but when the UK signed its first one with Indiana she did not travel to attend the ceremony. Instead, she promoted her book, Greater: Britain After The Storm, at the Hay Literary Festival.
She is also accused of declining to attend a World Trade Organisation summit where members set out steps to support Ukraine, because it was on a Sunday.
But a source close to her said: ‘Penny takes her duties very seriously... Nobody will believe Penny has downed tools or would find the timing of this story surprising.’
Miss Mordaunt’s team did not respond to requests for comment on Mrs Trevelyan’s remarks.
‘Missing at crucial moments’