A TORY MP in the running to become the next Prime Minister has been roundly mocked for a bizarre boast about her chances on social media.
Penny Mordaunt, who is currently in second place in the race to become Tory leader, shared the less than flattering results of a poll carried out by The Sun asking readers which candidates they preferred.
Did Mordaunt come first? Close second? Nope.
#PM4PM pic.twitter.com/4uf2pgGAlp
— Penny Mordaunt (@PennyMordaunt) July 18, 2022
Lagging far behind frontrunner and current bookie’s favourite Rishi Sunak, Mordaunt came 15 full percentage points behind the former Chancellor.
She tied for second place with the option “none/unsure” with a measly 19% of votes.
But she managed to come in front of Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat.
Twitter users were quick to point out Mordaunt’s result was nothing to brag about, with one saying: “Penny Mordaunt: As good as no one”.
Another said: “Incredible how proud she is about tying with none”.
One user added: “Her socials team must be on the pure wind up”.
Even more bizarre is the fact Mordaunt did not have to share the poll carried out by The Sun showing her in second place because another one - by the same paper - had her miles in the lead.
A poll attached to a story from last week showed Mordaunt striding past the competition with 57% of those voting backing the Portsmouth North MP.
Mordaunt has been branded “incompetent” by former colleagues and lasted just 85 days in her “dream job” as Defence Secretary.
She was sacked by Boris Johnson when he took over as Prime Minister in 2019 but later re-joined the Cabinet as Paymaster General before being demoted to trade policy minister.
Mordaunt was also embarrassed on Monday when a Guardian journalist revealed the leadership hopeful had “accidentally” sent out a scathing statement about her rivals for pulling out of a Sky News debate before sending out a reworded and greatly softened statement.
She has also been blasted for other faux pas on the campaign trail, including saying there were no circumstances in which she would allow indyref2 and claiming the NHS did not use “the top 185 innovations that we have had”.
Penny Mordaunt has now deleted this tweet. Did anyone ever work out what the hell it meant? pic.twitter.com/43XHI9gKeY
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) July 15, 2022
No one was able to work out what the latter comment meant or was intended to mean.
Scottish Tory MP John Lamont is backing Mordaunt and has also been mocked for suggesting she is the candidate Labour and SNP MPs “fear the most”.
Readers may be unsurprised to learn that Mordaunt worked with the king of gaffes George W Bush during his first presidential campaign and again for his re-election effort in 2004.
