To not understand why Penny Mordaunt is so popular?

[TheGeoffLinton]

She seems to have loads of support. Does anyone know why? It seems like she’s come out of nowhere.

I don’t think her being white has anything to do with it. Sunak was all set to succeed to the leadership until he disagreed with Johnson then the knives came out. Everyone who held cabinet office is tainted by association, the membership wants a clean pair of hands - which Mordaunt is (relatively).

Vile woman.

She's a proven liar. I mean, that's not stopped them before but you'd think after the last few weeks they might have noticed the public isn't keen on that, even if Conservative MPs don't care unless the lies are directed at them.

Conservative party members won't be bothered about voting for a liar. They did it last time.

And they won't vote for a non white PM.

I actually think she’s the least worst option. At least she’s vocally pro-choice. The others aren’t. I don’t have a vote though.

It’s not that they think Liz Truss isn’t a “true brexiteer” (too late, it’s happened!), she was a remainer.

I also disagree with those PPs who say the party won’t vote for Kemi because of the colour of her skin, I think they respect her for her work ethic and values and see beyond that.

She’s pretty. Many people don’t dig any further than the surface because of this.

The only benefit will be that people will no longer vote Tories because they "recognise what a woman is". Instead now the single issue voters though will have no political home which is a shite position to be in.

I was just about to say what PP said. What will the ‘I have no choice to vote Tory because they know what a woman is’ crew do if Penny ‘TWAW’ wins?

Something tells me they will still vote Conservative and will find another ‘reason’ why.

Not unreasonable.

Just stupid.

She's a dangerous proven lier

YANBU. She's a barefaced liar. We don't need another one of those as PM.

It’s not that they think Liz Truss isn’t a “true brexiteer” (too late, it’s happened!), she was a remainer.

She claims to have been converted but they need to sort out N Ireland and they don’t trust her.

Judging by her voting record, she's vile. Tories love a bit of vile, it's an anagram of evil.

It will be interesting to see how she gets on in the debates.

They'll be fighting to chuck the 'what is a woman?' question at her. She'll need to navigate that respectably or it could be a mess for her.

You're way off the mark with this.

There are many, many Labour-voting women who are utterly distraught at feeling as if they have to vote for the Conservatives. There are many women who feel this is a single issue election and will vote for the party that protects women's safety and identity. Of course, everyone knows that the Tories don't ACTUALLY give a shit and they're only doing it to secure votes. But the point is that - up until now - they were willing to do it, and that's the important part.

If you head over to the Feminism board you'll see lots of discussion on this subject. Lots of women saying they'll revert back to Labour or abstain if PM wins.

This issue might not be that crucial for you, and I understand that point of view. There are lots of other critical issues at stake. We all vote according to what we see as a priority. But I can assure you that I know many women who feel politically homeless right now but are veering towards a vote for the Tories, despite having been Labour/left wing their whole lives. If Penny "TWAW" Mordaunt is voted in, there's no a chance in hell they'll vote Tory.

I'm furious with Labour for not getting their act together and forcing so many women to seriously consider voting Conservative. It really shouldn't be bloody difficult to form a policy which is inclusive without ditching women's safety.

YANBU the last thing UK needs now is another liar in charge.

She tackled the issue directly on her Twitter page, summoning up a bit of outraged passion that anyone could EVER accuse her of binning off women's rights.

It was very artfully managed. She injected just the right amount of earnestness to sound credible but if you look carefully at what was said, she didn't really answer the difficult questions. And nor did she backtrack on TWAW. It's all just smoke and mirrors. I'd rather she was honest about her views - I might not vote for her but I'm not going to vote for her anyway, and I deeply distrust her for being so duplicitous now too.

Let's see if she handles the debates in the same slick way. Will be fascinating to see.

Civil servant I know said she’s been neglecting her job in favour of prepping this bid and that she’s just out for herself. Very much in line with the David Frost comments in the news this morning.

She'd be so disastrous for women and children's safety that I will March on parliament if she wins

I don't even know who this woman is. She might be awful or she might be great.
But come on! She's running for PM. Of course she's going to want to spend time on her bid. You can bet that civil servant would be taking time from their work to be preparing for the Head of the Civil Service job.

Maudant thinks a transwomen is a woman so clearly only a few braincells if she can't tell the difference between sex and gender. David Frost asked Boris to move her because she could not understand the details of Brexit. Also she says she did not have time to read the bill she put through the house pregnant person and refused to use the phrase pregnant woman. The house of Lords amended it to make it say pregnant woman and not pregnant person.

She's been spending time on her bid for ages. She's been quietly, but openly canvassing MPs all year.

To be fair, even Labour don’t like Angela Rayner. At least not the sane, centrists.