lDavid Frost, the former Brexit chief negotiator, told Talk TV he would have “serious reservations” about Penny Mordaunt becoming prime minister.
Referring to his time working with her during the Brexit negotiations, when Mordaunt served as his junior, Lord Frost said she was “not fully responsible or always visible”.
“To be honest, I’m quite surprised she is where she is in this race. She was my deputy – notionally more than real – in the Brexit talks last year,” he said.
“I am sorry to say this, she did not master the necessary details in the negotiations last year. She would not always deliver hard messages to the European Union when needed and I am afraid she is not fully responsible or always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.”
“I’m afraid this became such a problem that after six months I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her and find someone else to support me.”
“If you want to be prime minister, you have to be able to take responsibility, drive the machine, make difficult decisions and deliver difficult messages. Anyone can appear in a video and say ‘I promise you my country’, but it is what you do.” does in practice.”
“Based on what I saw, I would have serious reservations.”
Mordaunt finished second in the MPs’ first round of voting yesterday, behind former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.