The departure of Liz truss lead to a leadership election and as with last time, Craig backed Penny Mordaunt, helping to run her campaign again.
Penny is well-liked by colleagues across the house and is one of Parliament’s best assets. She also has the breadth of experience, having been a Minister in nine roles across eight departments (3 of those as the head of the Department plus her current role as Leader of the House of Commons) that I felt our next Prime Minister needed.
Our team agreed that there needed to be at least two candidates to ensure that members got a say but unfortunately, even though we battled all the way to the finishing line of 2pm on Monday, we were unable to secure the 102 signatures needed, falling just a handful short. As Rishi Sunak had secured more than half the nominations of those of the Parliamentary party he easily made it past the threshold and became both leader of the Conservative Party and subsequently Prime Minister.
I like Rishi, I have always found him extremely personable and he has always been very approachable to discuss things on a one to one basis when I have had concerns on matters. He also shares my passion for promoting female entrepreneurship and launched for me the most recent report of the APPG I chair on this subject, back in December last year.
So, although I did not back him at any point in either of the recent leadership campaigns, he does have my full support to deliver on what he has promised to do and also deliver the Mandate that we were overwhelmingly elected to do back in 2019.