She's the surprise frontrunner in the race to be our next Prime Minister.
But long before the perfectly-coiffed bouffant and the catchy campaign slogans, the young Penny was already a natural-born leader.
Indeed those who knew her as a child, say it was clear by the time she was just 10 years old, that she was someone with the ambition to succeed, someone who “really stood out”.
Among them was her local drama club teacher Lorraine Hepburn, who knew Penny during one of the toughest times of her life - and couldn’t be more proud of the now Portsmouth North MP.
Lorraine, now 63, tells the Mirror: “I watched her grow up. She was one of the first through the door when she was maybe 10 or 11 years old.
“She had leadership qualities, even then. She was really good with the younger ones and would lead the teams. And she was always at home on stage.”
Penny, now 49, spent much of her time after school and at weekends at the local Victory-land Theatre School, in her hometown of Portsmouth, Hants. And she was soon teacher’s pet.
“She was lovely, really reliable, she learned her lines, she did her background work, she was really supportive of other people on stage and she was very popular too.
“She stayed with me for a long time.”
It’s one of the few times anyone from Penny’s childhood has spoken, and until now so little has been known about the emerging dark horse of the Leadership race.
But it seems maybe that’s the way Penny likes it.
Born alongside twin brother James on March 1973 in Torquay, Devon, Penny is the daughter of former paratrooper John Mordaunt, now 83, and was named after Royal Navy cruiser HMS Penelope.
The twins were just two when they moved to Portsmouth, with their father becoming a teacher and youth worker and their mother Jennifer Snowden working as a special needs teacher. Younger brother Edward, now a lawyer in Leeds, soon came along.
But it would not be long before Penny faced a life-changing trauma - as her beloved mum passed away from breast cancer, when the MP was just 15. A year later her dad was also diagnosed with cancer. He survived, but Penny’s teen years were spent as the main carer for him and Edward, until three years later when her father remarried her step mum Sylvia. They still live in the family home where Penny was a teenager, but declined to comment on Penny’s PM bid.
Penny has never shared the specifics of her mum’s tragic death, but one 2013 tweet to a friend once warned: “Get a second opinion. My mum didn’t and she died. My dad did and he survived.”
In public Penny has since referred to it - some might think rather clinically - as “not a crisis” but a time that made her “stronger”.
She once told an interviewer: “You become a stronger person throughout all of that. I feel sad about it, but it gives you strength as well. It was a challenging time, but I wouldn’t say it was a crisis.”
The coolness seems to be nothing but the stiff upper lip required by British politics. For Lorraine is quick to stress Penny is the same caring girl she always was. She still remembers how close she and her mum were - and how it was after Jennifer died that the bright, shiny Penny stopped her drama lessons.
“Penny was very caring. She was the sort of person who would stay behind afterwards and help me pack everything up instead of just running off,” said Lorraine. “Her mum made the costumes as well.
“She was very dedicated. She would do her drama homework and then come back with questions, so she was always very thorough.
“I would say, in a sensitive way, she wasn’t someone who railroaded people.
“She was a lovely young girl and she grew into a lovely teenager and kept those qualities. I think she would be a good thing for our country.”
Lorraine insists she can’t remember Penny’s particular roles, but possibly to protect her chances of landing her biggest role yet. Being dressed as a tree, doesn’t scream future PM.
As for academics, Penny, studied at the local Oaklands Roman Catholic Comprehensive School, then went on to study philosophy at the University of Reading, where she served as President of the Students’ Union.
To pay her way through her studies she famously worked as a magician’s assistant to the late Will Ayling, past President of the Portsmouth Magical Society, while she has attributed her interest in politics to her gap year working in aid in Romania, post 1989 revolution. Her love of magic has remained. Just recently she was supporting a Magicians dressed as white bunnies on a sponsored walk. The ability to pull a few tricks out of the bag, being a key skill for Government, no doubt.
After uni, Penny worked in public relations, including as the head of British Press for the very controversial 2000 George W Bush Campaign, where he narrowly beat Bob Dole.
A woman of contradictions, who seems to have views more left and more right, Penny once more aligned herself with Republicans by posing with Ivanka Trump at a US women’s empowerment meeting, celebrating the record numbers of women getting elected to US Senate in 2016.
Despite the difficulties with the Trump brand, Penny raved about “amazing” women like Ivanka, saying “when women work together we can achieve great things”.
In 2010 she became an MP and joined the Royal Navy Reserve at a similar time, leaving the force in April 2019 when she was made an honorary commander by the Queen. She’s passionate about her Navy pursuits - and the lifestyle.
And once made headlines after using the word “cock” six times in a Commons debate about chickens as part of a Navy bet. “She was very good at comedy, she had good timing,” said Lorraine.
The Conservative’s roles in Government have included Minister for Women and Equalities and the first woman Secretary of State for Defence. She is currently serving as Minister of State for Trade Policy.
This week her famous bellyflop on 2014 celeb diving show Splash! went viral again, but despite the criticism for doing the series - alongside the likes of Gemma Collins - Penny has always maintained “it seemed like the perfect way to fundraise” for Portsmouth’s local Hilsea Lido. Not that she was unable to laugh at herself. “I have the elegance and drive of a paving slab, but my Navy training has certainly given me the guts to take on the challenge head on,” she said.
The diving career might have been a flop, but so was her early love life. She met fellow Reading student Paul Murray and they married in 1999 when they were 25 but split a year later. Friends had described it as a “no go topic” with Penny, while Paul - a property manager and keen cyclist, now living with a new partner in the home counties, has kept famously quiet.
She was later in an eight-year relationship with classical singer Ian Lyon, who has a plush west London pad, but it ended in 2016, with the couple having had “eight cats” but no children.
Meanwhile her relationship with her twin, who’s out and proud and calls himself a “Trans ally”, seems mostly strong - apart from his attack on all Tories in a tweet about trans rights, this February, which read: “If you are a member of the Conservative Party, a Conservative MP, part of this homophobic, transphobic government, you are complicit.”
He’s yet to comment on whether he meant to exempt his sister from this indictment, but she has come under fire from rightwingers for her changing trans views and supported him at Pride in the past, as well supporting World Aids Day, and other charities such as Alzheimer’s Research.
Before Penny’s profile was raised she would often joke with James and mutual friends on social media - and it seems neither twin is shy about their figure. After Penny wore her swimsuit on TV, James is prone to posting the odd so-called “thirst trap” photo, flexing his bodybuilder physique.
The MP, who is a fan of astrology and painting, has Burmese cats (at last count four) all named after Shakespearean characters, is also distantly related to Dame Angela Lansbury, through her mother’s side of the family.
The socialist actress, best known for playing Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote, - perhaps tellingly - refused to comment on Penny’s run for PM to the Mirror.
Otherwise Penny’s a keen animal lover - which may upset the fox hunt supporters in the Tory race - posing in a pretend car for The Dogs Trust and cooing that Guide Dogs For the Blind made a surprise visit to her office for her birthday.
She might need an emotional support pet, if she does get the top job.
