Drop culture war battles, Penny Mordaunt tells Tories

Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt admitted the Conservative party had not been true to itself or the UK’s values in “recent history” as she urged the Tories to drop its culture war obsession.

The former leadership contender urged her party to spend less time on divisive issues and focus on “building more and taxing less” during an appearance at a Margaret Thatcher conference in London on Monday.

Arguing that the electorate had not yet “sealed the deal” with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour, Ms Mordaunt said: “I think there’s all to play for and I think that historic fifth term is within our grasp.

“We have to be true not just to ourselves as conservatives but the values of the people of this country, and we haven’t been in recent history,” said the Commons leader, one of the favourites to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.

In a criticism of some of her colleagues, Ms Mordaunt told the Centre for Policy Studies’ (CPS) Margaret Thatcher Conference that pursuing a culture war “doesn’t help”.

She said: “It amazes me that in both the US and the UK, even though we know it’s a failed model of leadership, the top guy is always the focus whereas actually it’s the team, and I don’t mean the cabinet and the parliamentary party, it’s the country.”

Revealing that she had offered Mr Sunak some advice, Ms Mordaunt said: “I said to the prime minister, your team is the nation, and we have to reframe our story in those terms.

“And that’s why the culture wars and all of that doesn’t help because we’re here for everyone … And that’s why I am unapologetic about talking about building more and taxing less and not talking about culture wars because it doesn’t move the country forward.”

Taxing less has become a major point of contention within the Tories. Some backbenchers are urging tax cuts sooner rather than later, with both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss criticising repeated tax hikes.

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Ms Mordaunt made an oblique criticism of those who had attacked the privileges committee’s investigation into Mr Johnson. “We have to be really strong about people who are attacking institutions, people who are attacking the House for carrying out its work, people who are attacking the media.”

It comes as education secretary Gillian Keegan took a swipe at both Mr Johnson and Ms Truss over tax cuts when she delivered a speech at the Thatcher conference on Monday afternoon.

“Whilst lower taxes are at the heart of Conservative economic thinking, Margaret Thatcher never thought that the way to achieve a low tax economy was by dramatically increasing public sector debt and borrowing,” she said.

Warning it would be a “betrayal” to lower taxes before inflation was under control, Ms Keegan added: “It is not enough to look the part [of Margaret Thatcher], you need to play the part.”

Viewed as precursor to a future leadership bid, Ms Keegan aligned herself with Thatcher and also used her speech to describe her own journey into politics – growing up in a Labour-supporting working-class family in Merseyside but deciding to vote Conservative in 1987.

She said: “I learned what not to do when I saw how militant trade unions downed tools at the drop of a hat in protest to any changes required to remain competitive against global threats.”

Mr Keegan added: “I learned that you need to make the sums add up ... To me, that’s the true legacy of Margaret Thatcher. Sound money, and solid economic foundations.”

She went on to attack education unions over their rejection of the government’s pay offer, accusing them of focusing on their own “narrow interests” and consistently blocking attempts to improve standards in education.

After intensive talks with the education unions, the government offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year and an average 4.5 per cent rise for staff next year. But all four education unions rejected the offer and are planning renewed strike action in the autumn.