The thick stone battlements that guard the entrance to Portsmouth’s ancient harbour bake in the late afternoon heat. Teenage couples lounge on the sun-bleached walls and elderly couples share ice creams on the shaded benches while giant cross-Channel ferries chug past. Yet 40 years ago very different scenes inspired a young Penny Mordaunt – one of the city’s two MPs – into politics. She joined hundreds of well-wishers and service families watching Margaret Thatcher’s naval taskforce set sail for the Falklands. It was this moment – according to her carefully curated biography for the Tory faithful – that set her on a political path that could lead to No 10 in less than two months.
