Penny Mordaunt as PM

[beeonmybonnett]

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/16/conservatives-slam-bonkers-plot-to-topple-rishi-sunak-before-election
I’m wondering if Sunak’s days as PM are coming to an end ? I read a few articles, such as the one above, that seem to suggest there’s a plan to oust him and replace with him Penny Mordaunt? I actually quite like her.

I expect labour supporters on here will bad mouth her, as they are doing because they are very happy with Rishi remaining in post and losing.

I'd love to see legislation passed that if the pm is ousted it automatically triggers a general election. Not likely to happen though.

Certainly not in time.

It’ll be after the local elections.

1. Tory party gets roasted in the locals
2. Sunak resigns next day
3. Leadership contest - Cameron gets put forward to try and win back the Red Wall / Respect voters / traditional Tories who can’t currently vote for them but won’t vote Labour
4. Cameron wins but Leadership contest causes uproar - Cameron calls the election (knowing they won’t win but does it to look like a reasonable man)
5. June election - all the systems are in place after the Locals so not quite as expensive as an October one
6. Labour win but it’s not quite the absolute demolition of the Conservatives currently expected.

I reckon it’s why Brady paid a late night visit to Downing St this week - to let Sunak in on the plans.

Why would anyone take on election defeat?

I wouldn't.
No pm would ever be ousted no matter how ghastly they were or how much they needed to be rejected from the top seat if the party knew it would instantly and automatically trigger an election.

If a party has a leader who turns out to be ghastly, they need to be able to put their house in order without prejudice... otherwise it would ensure the person in the top job could get away with anything if their back benchers were in immediate fear for their jobs when deciding if they should stay or go.

They need to be able to be accountable to their party and the party is accountable to the people, but those two things shouldn't be coupled together or the former would never happen.

The mandate is given to the party not the individual at the top.

Urghhhh no she’s a c£bt.

Generally voted against raising welfare benefitsat least in line with prices

Almost always voted against a right to remain for EU nationalsalready in living in the UK

Almost always voted against increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000

Generally voted against higher taxes on banks

Generally voted against laws to promote equality and human rights

Consistently voted for selling England’s state owned forests

Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change

Consistently voted for mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities

Voted against smoking bans

Consistently voted for phasing out secure tenancies for life

wow, what a woman of the people!

Get this shitstorm out NOW

Don't be silly. I doubt if an individual's opinion of Mordaunt carries much weight.

She lost the last leadership race for a reason. But as the saying goes, 'a week is a long time in politics' and these people just hang around until the people who've beaten her in the last race get their opportunities and fuck them up.

In the unlikely event that the Tories win the next election, with her at the helm the future for women's rights looks extremely poor. There wouldn't be a pin to choose between her and Labour.

And yes, I'm well aware that there are other important issues to consider: in terms of my profession at least I likely need a Labour government in power if I want to keep my career in the medium-term.

But the women's rights issue is pretty damned important. Once those freedoms are given away we will never get them back.

Truss's position is unique though: coming in and immediately making an unforced error so egregious that she's forced to leave within weeks.

Anyone who came in as PM now could realistically hope for the judgement of history to be "was elected as Tory leader to try to salvage an unprecedentedly disastrous situation in the polls, led the country for 6-9 months, campaigned doggedly and didn't lose quite as badly as the polls suggested, stayed around as leader of the opposition for a year or two to see which way the wind was blowing then stepped down." It's not the worst thing to have in your obituary. Beats "was DEFRA Minister from 2021-2024" or whatever.

Bear in mind that reversion to the mean and polling history suggests that the Tory result at the next election will be terrible, but not as bad as the worst case scenario. It's highly likely that any hypothetical replacement PM will be able to point to the results and say "it wasn't as bad as we feared it would be six months ago".

Nice.

I assume the deleted comment was a reply to me. I'm going to be devastated now to have missed what it was. 🤣

I live for Penny Mordaunt v Deirdrie Brock!

This! No sane person would take on the poisoned chalice. Tories havn't a hope of winning the next GE. What they need to do is let Sunak lose it massively, he can then bugger off with his billionaire friends, and the party has the time to appoint a new leader through proper procedure (Remember Rishi was parachuted in without winning the internal leadership process!). Mordaunt may make an excellent leader with 5 years to prepare for the next GE which is enough time to try to get rid of the back stabbers and plotters who have ruined the Tory party!

@SerafinasGoose

*She lost the last leadership race for a reason."

But she won't be up against the same opposition next time, will she? She won't be fighting against Sunak and Truss so their natural supporters will have to vote for someone else - some, maybe many, will vote for Mordaunt instead.

Her maiden speech and views on men becoming women make her a huge no no for me.

This

It's not insults. It's things they have done.
Disprove any of them

We have all been taken for fools by both the main parties for far too long. I don't see this changing in my lifetime. Whoever is at the top is irrelevant. The problem is a political career just doesn't appeal to the sort of person we need it to.

Hence the very apt quote of two cheeks of the same arse!!

It's why we keep getting unexpected large swings in GEs. First to Libdems in 2010 when Clegg appeared to promise something different and then with UKIP and the Brexit vote, and now Reform. People are absolutely sick and tired of the "same old" whichever party is in power, because as we keep seeing in televised HOC, the ministers and shadow ministers are just playing a game with each other. Brexit epitomised this - voters voted for Brexit because they didn't feel valued or listened to - none of the major parties were in favour of Brexit, so voters voted for it as a kick up the arse of the "establishment", not necessarily because they wanted Brexit at all! We're in a dangerous place at the moment, and just like Hitler gaining power due to a power vacuum, similar could happen here and let extremists get a foothold! The success of UKIP caused the Brexit vote as Cameron was running scared. If Reform get a fair share of votes, whoever forms the next government may also do something stupid to stop Reform gaining even more popularity.

We really deserve better than the pathetic attempts of both Tories and Labour at the moment.

How the fuck does this qualify someone to run the country?

I didn’t say it did!

What I know about Penny: She was a Navy Reservist and she thinks people can change sex. Oh, and she wore that beautiful outfit to the Coronation.

I never vote Tory so she wouldn't get my vote anyway.

Whoever is at the top is irrelevant.

I disagree. The government is responsible for the welfare and direction of the nation.

If they are incompetent or corrupt, it has a huge impact on the population. If they flout laws within hours of passing them, they break the Social Contract. If they gamble the national economy for party and or personal gain, they can ruin the future of the country. They have say over legal rights of their citizens.

Those at the top are not irrelevant, they're really fucking important.