Penny Mordaunt Told Colleagues The Leadership Campaign Was Ready To Go In January

A campaign source told The Times on Friday: “We weren’t installing the phone lines – we didn’t have anything until last Friday.” The revelation of Ms Mordaunt’s approaches to colleagues in January cast doubt on that version of events. She also faced fresh questions about her stance on transgender rights, after a leaked memo appeared to challenge her claim this week that she had never been in favor of gender self-identification. The Whitehall paper, drawn up in 2019 when Ms Mordaunt was Equality Secretary, suggested she supported plans to simplify the gender reassignment process. The Sunday Times reported that Ms Mordaunt plans to abandon Johnson’s Brexit plans by keeping a trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, a move likely to anger the Conservative Party Right. It comes after Rishi Sunak faced charges of “conspiracy against the Prime Minister”. Last week, it emerged that a very similar web address to his official campaign website, launched last week, was registered on December 23 as Mr Johnson faced mounting pressure over the partygate scandal. Mr Sunak’s team denied having the second address.