About Penny Mordaunt
Penny has lived in Portsmouth all her life. She was educated at Oaklands Comprehensive School and sixth form. Her mother was a special needs teacher at schools in Purbrook before she died of breast cancer when Penny was fifteen years old. Penny’s stepmother was also a teacher at a local primary school. Her father was born in Hilsea barracks and served in the Parachute Regiment. He later became a teacher at Oak Park school and a youth worker for Hampshire Council.
Penny was the first of the family to go to university, where she studied Philosophy at Reading. She paid her way with several jobs, working by day at local factories, including the Johnson and Johnson factory, and by night, as a magician’s assistant for Will Ayling, President of the Magic Circle.
She went on to have a successful career in communications in the private, public and charitable sectors. During the blockades in France, she supported British truckers while working for the Freight Transport Association. She later became a director of one of the best performing local authorities in the UK.
She was a director of a national lottery distributor and created the Veterans Reunited programme, enabling servicemen and women to attend commemorative events and visit wartime battlefields. In 2004, she set up her own business which she sold before becoming Director of Diabetes UK, the largest patient organisation in Europe. She expanded its services into countries prone to diabetes while growing its income.
She has a long history as a volunteer firstly with the hospitals and orphanages of post-revolutionary Romania. Her interest in hospitals continued when she ran the League of Friends visitors at the Queen Alexandra Hospital. She remains a patron of Enable Ability, a Founder and President of the Wymering Manor Trust and Scouting Ambassador for Portsmouth. After a career as a Royal Navy reservist she now has a second commission and is an Honorary of the RNR, affiliated to MCM2 Squadron.
She lost Portsmouth North at her first attempt in 2005. She went on to win the seat in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019, each time with an increased majority. In 2014, Penny joined the government as a Minister in Local Government. In 2015 she was made the Minister for Armed Forces, the first woman to hold this position. In 2016, she was appointed as Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work. In November 2017, she was promoted again into her first cabinet position as Secretary of State for International Development and subsequently became Secretary of State for Defence, again the first woman to hold the post.
In 2020, Penny returned to government and was appointed to the role of Her Majesty’s Paymaster General.
In 2021 she became Minister for International Trade Policy, overseeing all live trade negotiations, with a particular focus on CPTPP. She established the US state-level Memorandum of Understanding programme after President Biden slowed a US Federal deal, opening negotiations with 50% of US states and signing the first three deals within a year.
In 2022 both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak asked her to serve as Leader of the Commons and Lord President of the Council. In this role, she oversaw both the Accession Council following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III.
She is the co-author of Greater: Britain after the storm, the proceeds of which fund he social projects, and Trustee and Patron of several charities.
Before politics, she had worked in the private, public and charitable sectors and founded her own business in 2004. She has been a Royal Navy Reservist since 2009, completed officer training in 2013, and gained Honorary commission in 2019. She now holds the Honorary Rank of Captain and is affiliated to MCM2 squadron, the UK’s Mine Hunters and Ocean Patrol vessels.
Parliamentary Career
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Voting Record
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Early Day Motions
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Spoken Contributions
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Last Election Result
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