Tory MP Penny Mordaunt has told a fringe audience her party can still “win the election” with a majority, with voters unconvinced of Labour and its leader.
Ms Mordaunt, who is Leader of the House of Commons in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, told Iain Dale’s All Talk audience on Sunday that she doesn’t think “the deal is sealed with the Labour party yet” because “people don’t really know” what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer “stands for”.
Ms Mordaunt told the crowd at Edinburgh Festival Fringe she will “do everything I can” to secure a fifth Conservative term at the next general election and “anything is possible”.
It comes as polls increasingly point towards a Labour victory at the election, expected next year, after the party secured its largest ever by-election win in July by overturning a Conservative majority in Selby and Ainsty by 20,000 votes.
But the Tories held on to former prime minister Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat by 495 votes, with Mr Starmer blaming concerns around Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion for the defeat.
Addressing her party’s chances in the upcoming election, Ms Mordaunt said her party had to “give the country confidence” that the Tories can deliver.
She said: “I do think it is possible to win the election and win it with a majority that we can do something with.”
The Tory MP, who was a contender in the party’s leadership race last year, took aim at Labour, led by Sir Keir Starmer.
She told the audience: “I don’t think the deal is sealed with the Labour party yet for all sorts of reasons, but in part because people aren’t really sure about Keir Starmer. They don’t really know what he stands for.
“I think anything is possible. But what we have to do is, coming out of some very difficult years, we have got to give the country confidence that we’re on the right trajectory and that we can deliver for them.”
Asked by host Iain Dale if she would agree that her party have so far failed to deliver that confidence, she responded: “I don’t think that.”
I don’t think the deal is sealed with the Labour party yet for all sorts of reasons, but in part because people aren’t really sure about Keir Starmer
Ms Mordaunt also discussed her attempts to win the leadership of the Tories last year, where she said there were “carrots and sticks to get her to withdraw” from the second race against Rishi Sunak.
She added: “But I chose not to because I felt that if we weren’t going to have a contest it had to be demonstrated that there was not the will amongst MPs.”
Asked if she would run for leadership of the party again, she said: “It’s no secret that I would have liked to have been prime minister, that’s why I threw my hat in the ring. But genuinely, I’m not thinking about that.
“I really do think that if we do not win this the fifth term, millions of things that we have, and the country has been through, which have been quite painful, but in my view, the right thing for the trajectory of the country, they wouldn’t be maximised.
“And I’m going to do everything I can to support the PM and get us that fifth term.”
Her comments come as Environment Secretary Therese Coffey warned the Conservative party must show it cares about the environment in order to win, but cautioned it must not be in a way that “burdens” the public.
The Tories’ narrow victory of Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat last month has led to calls to rethink the way climate policies are implemented.
Rishi Sunak has sought to portray himself as being on the side of “motorists” after Mr Khan’s Ulez anti-emissions charge was linked to Labour’s failure to win the seat by Mr Starmer.
There have been indications the Government will water down the implementation of some net-zero policies to lessen the impact during a cost-of-living crisis.
MPs on the right of the Tory party have been urging the Prime Minister to go further.
Ms Coffey told the Mail On Sunday: “In order to win the next election, we need to continue to show that we care about the environment.
“We also need to show that there is a way to do that which doesn’t put burdens on hard-working people.”
Not all Conservatives believe Mr Sunak is committed to the environment, with Lord Zac Goldsmith alleging the PM is “uninterested” in the crisis as he resigned as a minister.
