Penny Mordaunt: Career, Personal Life, and the Coronation Sword

Born: 4 March 1973 ·
MP for Portsmouth North: 2010–2024 ·
Ministerial roles: 9 ·
Cabinet roles: 4 ·
Leader of the House of Commons: 6 September 2022 – 5 July 2024 ·
Left the Commons: 30 May 2024

Eight facts, one pattern: the public record is thoroughly documented, while the private details are not.

What happened to Penny Mordaunt?

Mordaunt’s parliamentary career ended at the 2024 general election, when Labour’s Amanda Martin took Portsmouth North by 780 votes (ITV News (UK broadcaster)). The result was not close: Martin won 14,495 votes to Mordaunt’s 13,715 (The News, Portsmouth (local daily)). It was a dramatic reversal from 2019, when Mordaunt won the seat with a majority of 15,780 (ITV News (UK broadcaster)).

• ITV News reported an 18.12 percentage-point swing to Labour (ITV News (UK broadcaster)).
• The defeat ended 14 years as Portsmouth North’s MP (The News, Portsmouth (local daily)).
• Reuters confirmed the seat changed hands at the 2024 general election (Reuters (wire service)).

The implication: Mordaunt’s national profile did not insulate her from the national Conservative collapse. Portsmouth North was a bellwether case, not a personal referendum.

What is Penny Mordaunt doing today?

Mordaunt is no longer a Member of Parliament. Reuters’ post-election report confirmed she lost her seat and that she had carried the Sword of State at the coronation, but it did not name any new office or role (Reuters (wire service)). She held the Leader of the House of Commons role until July 2024, so the transition out of ministerial life is recent (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).

• In October 2024, ITV News reported Mordaunt pledged to continue serving Portsmouth despite the election loss (ITV News (UK broadcaster)).
• Her official website describes post-parliamentary work as a “portfolio of global …” — the specifics are not spelled out in the sources reviewed here.
• For now, the confirmed public record shows no new elected office and no government appointment (Reuters (wire service); Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).

What this means: Mordaunt has not vanished from public life, but her next chapter is not yet documented in the same way her Commons career is.

What has Penny Mordaunt done?

Mordaunt was first elected as the Conservative MP for Portsmouth North in 2010 and represented the constituency until the 2024 general election (BBC News (UK broadcaster)). During that time she held a series of high-office roles, including several firsts for a woman in British politics.

• Secretary of State for International Development in 2017 (Tatler (UK culture magazine)).
• Minister for Women and Equalities in 2018 (Tatler (UK culture magazine)).
• First female Defence Secretary, appointed under Theresa May in 2019 and removed after Boris Johnson became prime minister (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).
• Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from 6 September 2022 to 5 July 2024 (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).
• Presided over the Accession Council after Queen Elizabeth II’s death and Charles III’s accession (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).
• Her official biography lists nine ministerial roles, four of them in Cabinet.

The trade-off: her public career is unusually easy to verify, which makes the gaps in her personal life all the more noticeable.

Is Penny Mordaunt still married?

Published reports say Mordaunt was previously married to Paul Murray, with the marriage dated to 2009 and the divorce to 2014. The official sources reviewed for this article do not list a current spouse.

Has Penny Mordaunt got any children?

• No children are mentioned in the official sources reviewed here.
• Published reports say she does not have children.

Where does Penny Mordaunt live?

• Residence is not confirmed in official sources.
• Portsmouth North is her former constituency, not a verified home address.

What religion is Penny Mordaunt?

• Religion is not stated in official sources reviewed for this article.
• Avoid treating social speculation as fact.

The catch: the same sources that document her ministerial dates go silent on her private life, so an honest profile has to mark those questions as unanswered.

Is Penny Mordaunt left or right?

• Mordaunt is a Conservative and was the Conservative MP for Portsmouth North (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).
• In UK political terms, the Conservative Party sits on the centre-right to right of the political spectrum.
• Her personal faction within the party is not labelled here beyond verifiable public positions.

The distinction matters: party affiliation is a matter of public record; factional alignment is not confirmed by the sources used here.

Who carried the sword at King Charles’ coronation?

Penny Mordaunt carried the Sword of State at King Charles’ coronation in May 2023 (Reuters (wire service)). She also presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering during the service (ITV News (UK broadcaster)). In total, she carried two ceremonial swords for more than an hour (BBC News (UK broadcaster)). The News, Portsmouth described the duty as the first time it had been carried out by a woman (The News, Portsmouth (local daily)).

Why did Penny Mordaunt carry the sword?

• She was Lord President of the Council at the time, a role she held from 6 September 2022 to 5 July 2024 (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).
• As Lord President, she presided over the Accession Council after Queen Elizabeth II’s death (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).
• The ceremonial role was tied to the constitutional office she held, not a personal honour.

The upshot: the coronation image was memorable because it made a constitutional job visible — and it made Mordaunt instantly recognisable on a global scale.

Timeline: from Portsmouth to the palace

• 4 March 1973 — Born Penelope Mary Mordaunt (official record).
• 2010 — Elected Conservative MP for Portsmouth North (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).
• 9 November 2017 — Appointed Secretary of State for International Development (Tatler (UK culture magazine)).
• 2019 — Served as Secretary of State for Defence (BBC News (UK broadcaster)).
• 6 September 2022 — Appointed Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).
• May 2023 — Carried the Sword of State and the Jewelled Sword of Offering at the coronation (Reuters (wire service)).
• 30 May 2024 — Left the House of Commons at the 2024 dissolution (official record).
• 4 July 2024 — Lost Portsmouth North to Labour’s Amanda Martin (Reuters (wire service)).
• 5 July 2024 — Left the role of Leader of the House of Commons (Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)).

What’s confirmed and what’s unclear

What the records say

The BBC’s profile records that Mordaunt was the UK’s first female Defence Secretary, a role she held in 2019 under Prime Minister Theresa May.

BBC News (UK broadcaster)

Reuters confirmed that Mordaunt lost Portsmouth North to Labour’s Amanda Martin at the 2024 general election and that she carried the Sword of State at the coronation.

Reuters (wire service)

ITV News reported that she presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering to the King and that her 2019 majority of 15,780 turned into a 780-vote defeat.

ITV News (UK broadcaster)

Politics.co.uk notes that as Lord President of the Council she presided over the Accession Council after Queen Elizabeth II died.

Politics.co.uk (Westminster politics site)

For context on the seat and her departure, see our explainers on Penny Mordaunt’s 2024 election loss and Penny Mordaunt’s coronation role.

None of this means Mordaunt has faded. Her ceremonial moment made her one of the most recognisable Conservatives of her generation, and her October 2024 pledge to keep serving Portsmouth shows the political pull has not gone (ITV News (UK broadcaster)). The lesson for Conservative strategists is direct: a national profile can carry a sword, but it cannot carry a seat when the national tide turns by 18 points. For Conservative strategists, the choice is clear — rebuild the local coalition that produced a 15,780-vote majority, or watch Portsmouth North stay Labour.

Frequently asked questions

The record stops where the private sources stop: for anyone writing the next chapter, the task is to update the public record, not infer the private one.