On Sunday morning, Mordaunt, MP for Portsmouth North, posted the video on her Twitter account with the caption “Our leadership needs to change. It has to be done a little less for the leader and a lot more for the ship.” Peacock, 29, appeared in the original video crossing the finish line of a race in slow motion, with the voice saying the words: “We have to focus on who we are.” The clip also included a shot of South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was later convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Peacock, an English sprinter who won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympics tournaments, responded to the video on Twitter, saying: “I formally request to be removed from this video… anything but blue please.” At the time of writing, Peacock’s comment had received 12,800 likes – more than double the number received by Mordaunt’s tweet announcing her entry into the leadership race. TV presenter Sue Perkins was among those to tweet a response to the athlete, saying: ‘I can’t believe you weren’t even asked for your consent. Oh wait…” Later on Sunday afternoon, an edited version was tweeted by Mordaunt’s account, with users quick to point out the changes. Journalist Hugo Gye said: “Mordaunt appears to have released a new version of the launch video, which no longer features either @JonniePeacock (who complained it was included) or convicted murderer Oscar Pistorius.” “Is it new without @JonniePeacock asking you to remove it?” another user said. There were other changes, including the video of an interview with Professor Sarah Gilbert, the British co-creator of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, being replaced with more generic footage of healthcare staff. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Mordaunt’s announcement continued to attract attention on social media throughout Sunday, with many likening the video to a clip from BBC satire The Day Today, which uses the same background music. She is one of nine candidates who have so far declared their candidacy for the leadership role following Boris Johnson’s resignation.
