Citing his time working with her during the Brexit negotiations when Mordaunt served as his junior, Lord Frost said she was “not fully accountable or always visible”. “To be honest, I’m very surprised that she’s in this race. She was my deputy – notional more than real – in the Brexit talks last year,” he said. “I am sorry to say this, he had not learned the necessary details in the negotiations last year. She did not always give tough messages to the European Union when necessary and I fear she was not fully accountable or always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where he was.” “I’m afraid it became such a problem that after 6 months I had to ask the prime minister to move on and find someone else to support me.” “If you’re going to be prime minister, you have to be able to take charge, run the machine, make tough decisions and give tough messages. Anyone can appear on a video and say ‘I promise you my country’, but it’s what you do in practice”. “Based on what I saw, I would have serious reservations.” Mordaunt finished second in the first round of voting by MPs yesterday, behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak.
