Senior officers question Penny Mordaunt’s claims about Royal Navy credentials
- PM candidate Penny Mordaunt claims experience in Royal Naval Reserve
- She has not been deployed and is currently not receiving a salary or train
- But a highly decorated former senior Royal Navy officer says she’s not here now
- They went on to say ‘she was never qualified or commissioned’ in the Navy
Penny Mordaunt‘s claims about her Royal Navy credentials have been questioned by senior officers.
During the Tory leadership contest she has said her experience in the Royal Naval Reserve and values of military service make her ideally suited to become prime minister.
The announcement of the Portsmouth MP’s candidacy included a reference to the Royal Navy when she said leadership should be ‘less about the leader and more about the ship’.
Miss Mordaunt, 49, went on to claim that she understood, “perhaps better than any other candidate,” the government’s responsibility to support the armed forces. But for some, the final straw came when one of her supporters, Tory MP George Freeman, claimed in a TV interview that she had “fought in the Navy.”
In Uniform: Penny Mordaunt Is A Candidate To Be Prime Minister And Says She Is A Navy Reservist
Penny Mordaunt, when she was Defense Secretary, visiting F35 fighter jet pilots at RAF Akrotiri in 2019
Last night a highly decorated former senior Royal Navy officer said: ‘She isn’t’ [currently] a trained or paid reservist, she has never been qualified or appointed. She’s been beating the sea drum for days and enough is enough. How she presented herself – and how she allowed herself to be presented – has been deeply misleading.’
Miss Mordaunt enlisted as a Royal Naval Reservist in 2010. She was named an honorary commander in 2019 and an honorary captain last year. But she has not served on an operational deployment. She currently does not meet the Royal Naval Reserve’s training obligations and receives no salary, as her entries in the Members’ Register of Interests confirm.
She was defense secretary for only 85 days before being fired by Boris Johnson in July 2019. Before that, she was Minister of the Armed Forces from May 2015 to July 2016.
Miss Mordaunt’s team did not respond to a request for comment.