As Tories look beyond the election result, Penny Mordaunt is a credible opposition leader

Penny Mordaunt imprinted herself on the national consciousness as the solemn bearer of the Sword of State at the coronation just over a year ago. She carried the huge weight – of the sword and her ceremonial responsibility – with an aplomb that drew widespread praise, with not a step misplaced and wearing an outfit of her own design. Since the start of the election campaign, she has represented the Conservatives in the two seven-party television debates, attracting rather more mixed reviews. She has now given her first in-depth interview of the campaign to The Independent.

While venturing into this particular lion’s den of the media may not represent quite the same challenge as coronation sword-bearing or quick-fire television debates, it comes with multiple risks of its own. The election result may be widely accepted as a foregone conclusion, but no incumbent MP would want to jeopardise her chances of re-election, and Ms Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, is someone who may well have not just a political past but a political future, given the regularity with which she is mentioned as a possible party leader.

It is thus to Ms Mordaunt’s credit that she not only agreed to an interview, but spoke as openly and honestly as she did. At a time when politicians are the object of so much public mistrust, it is important to recognise that there are exceptions – perhaps many more exceptions than is commonly acknowledged – and her candour in particular is to be welcomed.

In the candour box belongs her effective acknowledgement that the game is already up, with her extraordinarily frank comment that the Conservatives are going into this election as “the underdog” – after 14 years in government! A similar refusal to varnish facts was reflected in her response to the prime minister’s early departure from the D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

As the elected representative for a naval constituency – Portsmouth North – for nearly 15 years, and a naval reservist herself, she would have been even more instantly aware of the gravity of Rishi Sunak’s misjudgement than the rest of the country. No excuses, no ifs, no buts – it was “wrong”.

Even as she acknowledges the plight of her party less than three weeks out from the election, however, Ms Mordaunt is still rallying her electoral troops, as an aspiring leader should. The polls may not be quite as dire for the Conservatives as they appear, she suggests. She is also right in identifying weaknesses in the manifesto pledges of Labour, and these include tax. Just because Sir Keir Starmer and his party seem so far ahead, it does not mean there are no arguments to be made in the days of campaigning that remain.

It is also true that the pressure is now on Sir Keir, who is now – rightly – facing a lot more scrutiny than hitherto. He has positioned Labour as a left-of-centre, centrist party that will not be punitive on taxes. How hard this will be to achieve may only now be emerging, although the difficulties are likely to loom a lot larger once Sir Keir and his likely chancellor, Rachel Reeves, find themselves in charge of the national finances.

While they have been clear about which taxes they will not raise, they have left a gaping void as to where exactly they hope to find the billions that will be needed for the scale of queue-cutting they envisage in just the NHS and asylum applications. How soon might Sir Keir and co be facing the “read my lips” taunt from an electorate that feels cheated?

That said, the mood among voters now is not so much hope in what Labour might do; rather, it is anger and frustration with the broken country they believe has been left by the Conservatives, whose manifesto also contains many holes. These include – as identified by Labour’s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, for The Independent – pledges to crack down on tax avoidance, and other measures that might give an appearance of double accounting, as well as the actual costs of the proposed national service scheme for 18-year-olds. If this would be a cost – and there can be little doubt that it would be – then how are tax cuts to be afforded?

The biggest question of all, though, has to be the one so many voters are asking: what did you do with those 14 years in power? And here, Ms Mordaunt was a lot clearer about what she had done for her constituents than what her party had done for the country. So long as that remains the question at the top of the voters’ agenda, Sir Keir will have the luxury of at least a little time.