Penny Mordaunt missed ministerial meetings because she was plotting her Tory leadership bid, her departmental boss said, as senior Conservatives expressed concern about the increasingly bitter race to replace Boris Johnson.
The trade minister’s absence from meetings forced colleagues to pick up the pieces, international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan alleged in a scathing attack on the leadership hopeful.
Ms Trevelyan is backing Tom Tugendhat for the Conservative party leadership, but he is at risk of being eliminated from the contest in the next round of voting on Monday evening.
In a sign of concern about the way the leadership race is being conducted, campaign frontrunner Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss confirmed they did not want to take part in a Sky News debate planned for Tuesday – prompting the broadcaster to cancel the show.
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“Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative Party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party,” a Sky statement said.
[ Tory leadership race: Candidates accuse each other of dishonesty and dirty tricksOpens in new window ]
The leadership contenders – Mr Sunak, Ms Truss, Ms Mordaunt, Mr Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch – have already taken part in debates on Channel 4 and ITV which have seen the would-be prime ministers taking primetime pot shots at each other.
Ms Mordaunt’s record in office came in for further attack from Ms Trevelyan on LBC Radio on Monday morning.
Asked about Ms Mordaunt’s grasp of details, Ms Trevelyan said: “We all do our jobs in different ways.
“Understandably, perhaps, now it’s clear, Penny has for the last few months spent some of her time focused on preparing her leadership campaign, for which I have utmost respect, that’s how this system works.
“There have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces.”
The contenders for the Tory leadership will be whittled down to four as MPs cast their votes in the third round of the contest to find a successor to Boris Johnson.
Mr Tugendhat had fewer votes than his remaining rivals in the last ballot on Thursday and he would seem to be in the most jeopardy this time round.
Ms Trevelyan said she hoped he would get another chance to run for the leadership if he failed in this attempt.
“He has this extraordinary ability to bring people together to work with him who would not otherwise work together,” she said. “I think it’s a genuine gift and I wanted the rest of the world to see much more of it. If this isn’t his time, I hope that there will be a future time when he can lead the party.”
Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse said he expected the Tories to pull together in a “spirit of harmony and love” after the leadership battle.
“All political parties are standing coalitions and the Conservative Party is the same,” he said on Sky News. “A vigorous exchange of ideas, in what is a challenging time for the country, should be expected when you are talking about such important issues and the leadership of a G7 nation.
“If it was just a polite agreement and consensus across the board, there wouldn’t be much point in having a competition at all.”
Mr Malthouse has not publicly declared his support for any of the candidates to succeed Mr Johnson.
A series of votes among Tory MPs this week will narrow the field down to a final two, who will then face a summer of campaigning for the support of party members in a final vote.
The new leader will be announced on September 5th and is expected to become prime minister the following day.
Mr Sunak said if he was successful his first foreign trip would be to Kyiv to stress the UK’s continued support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. He said in the Sun: “I will reinforce our policy of total support for Ukraine that Boris has so ably led.”
But Ms Mordaunt said her campaign had the support of 10 Ukrainian MPs.
Ms Truss seized on analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research which suggested that tax revenues in 2024/25 will be around £60 billion (€71 billion) more than the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates, partly due to the impact of high inflation.
A spokeswoman for Ms Truss said: “The CEBR analysis shows that there is money for tax cuts whilst still bringing debt down.” — PA