LONDON — Want to be a hit in British politics? Just wield a massive ceremonial weapon in a fancy hat and you’ll do fine.
MPs from across the political divide lined up Thursday to heap accolades on Penny Mordaunt, who turned heads at King Charles III’s coronation as she carried the sword of state in her role as lord president of the privy council.
Mordaunt’s more prosaic day job — leader of the House of Commons — sees her face a weekly grilling from MPs as she reels off upcoming debates and trades barbs with the opposition.
But Thursday’s session saw many MPs swap policy quibbles for fawning praise.
Mordaunt’s opposite number, Labour’s Thangam Debonnaire, set the tone, praising “her royal meme-ness” as a “symbol of solemnity,” gushing about an “elegant outfit with nods to tradition [and] modernity,” and saying the Commons leader had “diligently carried out her duty with grace and poise.”
This being politics, Debonairre couldn’t resist a few jabs, saying Mordaunt had done a particularly good job given she “must have been awake the previous night counting all those Tory losses” in a local election pasting the day before the coronation.
Tory MPs — who twice had the chance to make Mordaunt their leader and may now be mulling a rethink — didn’t need to caveat the love-in.
Vicky Ford said Mordaunt had been an “emblem of dignity, poise and girl-power.” Her blue and green coronation dress, Ford beamed, was now a “worldwide sensation,” praise that transitioned with a bit less dignity and poise into a question about environmental policy.
For James Gray, Mordaunt was “modest” and “noble” in deflecting praise for her big outing, while Tobias Ellwood said she had proven herself to be the “King’s most reliable Pen,” an apparent reference to Charles getting riled up by a malfunctioning writing tool last year.
Tim Loughton upped the ante, saying he was “disappointed” Mordaunt in all her “magnificence” would not be reprising the role at this weekend’s Britain-hosted Eurovision Song Contest.
Even the SNP, famed for using any Commons outing to tear into the anti-Scottish independence government in Westminster, found time to join the Mordaunt fan club, praising the “commendable upper body strength on show there, and with the added strain of having to remain silent virtually all afternoon as well.”
But, SNP rep Deidre Brock added: “Maybe it was a speak-softly-and-carry-a-big-sword-moment, as it appears carrying a lethal weapon and wearing an imperial-style outfit now makes her favorite to be the next Tory leader.”
Failing that, there’s always “Star Wars.”
