Penny Mordaunt

Penelope Mary Mordaunt (; born 4 March 1973)Profile, ukwhoswho.com; accessed 8 May 2015. is a British Conservative politician who was the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council. She was the Secretary of State for Defence in 2019, and has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth North from 2010 until she lost her seat after the 2024 election. 

Mordaunt was Secretary of State for International Development from 2017 to 2019. 

In May 2019, Mordaunt was appointed Defence Secretary after Gavin Williamson was fired. She is the first woman to hold this post.

In July 2022, Mordaunt announced her candidacy to replace Boris Johnson as Leader of the Conservative Party in the 2022 leadership election. She was eliminated in the fifth round of voting on 20 July 2022.

After Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister in October 2022, Mordaunt announced her candidacy for Conservative Party leader again for the October leadership election. She withdrew from the race on 23 October 2022 and supported Rishi Sunak, who won the election unopposed.

References

Category:1973 births
Category:Living people
Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs
Category:UK MPs 2010–2015
Category:UK MPs 2015–2017
Category:UK MPs 2017–2019
Category:Royal Navy officers
Category:People from Portsmouth
Category:Politicians from Devon