Penny in trade storm
Row with own staff as she tries to ‘take credit’ for deal during leadership bid
PENNY Mordaunt was embroiled in a row with her own department last night over the announcement of a new post-Brexit trade agreement in the midst of her Tory leadership bid.
The trade minister is planning to unveil the deal with the US state of North Carolina before MPs stage their final round of voting this afternoon.
Officials at the Department for International Trade (DIT) are said to be furious about the timing and have called for her to delay the announcement.
One said it was ‘inappropriate’ for the minister to try and ‘take credit’ for the deal in the middle of the race for the keys to No10.
However, a spokesman for Miss Mordaunt’s campaign said she was simply continuing the work of government. The row comes days after she was accused of being a ‘parttime’ minister who has dedicated the last few months to preparing her leadership campaign instead of her departmental work. Insiders at the DIT were last night urging the minister to delay the news until tomorrow afternoon, when MPs will have already decided on the two leadership candidates who will take part in a run- off vote decided by Tory members.
Miss Mordaunt reportedly refused to go to Indiana to sign a similar state-wide trade agreement in the US weeks ago despite negotiating the deal. Fellow minister Ranil Jayawardena attended the formal announcement in her place. Instead Ms Mordaunt was spotted arriving by helicopter at the Hay literary festival where she promoted her new book.
Today’s announcement is also thought to be a Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and North Carolina, which has a far larger economy than Indiana.
One official said it would be a ‘complete systems failure’ if the deal is unveiled at the height of the race to succeed Boris Johnson.
They told The Sun yesterday: ‘Trying to take credit for the North Carolina deal in the middle of the race is totally inappropriate.
‘Not least because she could not be a***d to go sign the deal with Indiana in May.’ Another suggested she is trying to push back on claims she has been a ‘shirking minister’ over the past few months.
The source added: “Penny is trying to neutralise the shirking minister stuff and its cutting up rough in the department.’ Transparency data released last week revealed that Miss Mordaunt failed to take a single foreign trip between January and March this year, despite being responsible for striking international trade deals. A DIT source last week said ‘it feels like she’s been a part-timer’.
It is a view backed up by Miss Mordaunt’s boss, Trade Secretary Anne Marie Trevelyan, who savaged her work ethic on Tuesday. She told radio station LBC: ‘We all do our jobs in different ways. Understandably, 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.
‘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.’
And at the weekend, one of Miss Mordaunt’s 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 party leadership hopeful quit the role of head of communications for Kensington and Chelsea Council in London because she ‘couldn’t do the job’.
A Mordaunt campaign spokesman said: ‘Even in these busy times, Penny has been focused on ensuring that we take advantage of the benefits of Brexit by securing a trade deal with North Carolina and other US states, which will boost GDP, growth and jobs. The important work of Government must continue, and Penny will continue to lead the way in ensuring the UK secures state-level deals with the US.’
Last night the minister posted a picture on social media with Marisa Lago, the US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, to ‘celebrate recent trade US-UK breakthroughs’.
She added that US state-level strategy is ‘progressing at pace’.
‘Totally inappropriate’
‘Cutting up rough in her department’