Penny Mordaunt: Biography, Age, Career, and What She’s Doing Now

Age: 51 (born 4 March 1973) ·
Parliamentary tenure: MP for Portsmouth North, 2010–2024 ·
Cabinet positions held: 4 ·
Book publication: Pomp and Circumstance (2023)

Eight biographical data points, one pattern: the official record is strong on dates and titles, thinner on personal life.

What is Penny Mordaunt doing today?

Post-parliamentary portfolio

• Left the Commons on 30 May 2024 (UK Parliament (official member record))
• Working across global advisory roles, writing, and commentary
• Not currently holding elected office

Mordaunt’s official parliamentary record ends on 30 May 2024, when she left the House of Commons after 14 years as the MP for Portsmouth North (UK Parliament (official member record)). Her work since then has been described as a portfolio of global advisory roles, writing projects, and occasional media commentary, though the public record is thin on specifics: no client list, no formal job title, and no single employer announced.

The contrast with her ministerial years is sharp. Across her ministerial career she held nine posts; today, her commitments are described in general terms rather than official titles. That is not unusual for former cabinet ministers, but it makes “what is she doing now” harder to answer precisely.

Book and media appearances

• Published Pomp and Circumstance in 2023 (Wikipedia (biography))
• A humorous guide to British manners, etiquette, and customs
• Media appearances tied to the book and political commentary

In 2023, while still Leader of the House of Commons, Mordaunt published Pomp and Circumstance, a humorous guide to British manners and customs (Wikipedia (biography)). The book gave her an authorial platform that outlived her Commons career. Since May 2024 she has appeared in media mostly as a commentator on politics and institutions rather than as a candidate or office-holder.

What she has not done is more telling: no leadership bid, no new party role, and no confirmed return to frontline politics have been announced.

What has Penny Mordaunt done?

Ministerial roles

• MP for Portsmouth North, 2010–2024 (UK Parliament (official member record))
• Nine ministerial posts between 2014 and 2024 (GOV.UK (ministerial record))
• Cabinet roles spanning defence, development, equalities, and Commons leadership

Mordaunt’s ministerial career read like a tour of the less glamorous but essential parts of government: Minister of Local Government in 2014, Minister for the Armed Forces in 2015, Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work in 2016, Secretary of State for International Development in November 2017, Minister for Women and Equalities in 2018, and Secretary of State for Defence in 2019, according to her official GOV.UK ministerial record (GOV.UK (ministerial record)).

That Defence appointment made her the first woman to hold the office, a point the official record states explicitly (GOV.UK (ministerial record)). Earlier, in 2015, she had also become the first woman to serve as Minister for the Armed Forces (GOV.UK (ministerial record)).

After a period as Paymaster General in 2020 and Minister of State at the Department for International Trade from 16 September 2021 to 6 September 2022, she took the highest-profile job of her career: Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons, which she held from 6 September 2022 to 5 July 2024 (GOV.UK (ministerial record)).

Before politics, she worked in public relations and communications, spent a gap year working in Romanian orphanages, and worked on George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, according to BBC News (BBC News (profile)). She also served as a Royal Navy reservist before entering the Cabinet (BBC News (profile)).

Is Penny Mordaunt left or right?

• Party: Conservative
• Voting record: broadly centre-right

Mordaunt is a Conservative, and her voting record is broadly centre-right, in line with the party’s mainstream. Her career priorities — defence, trade, international development, and parliamentary reform — reflect the governing centre of the Conservative Party rather than a distinct ideological faction.

The takeaway: she has never been an easy ideological pigeonhole, which helps explain her unusually long run in frontbench roles under successive leaders. The label that fits best is institutional Conservative, not movement radical.

The same holds at the end of her Commons career: the official record carries the facts, and the post-MP work remains lighter on paper.

Is Penny Mordaunt still married?

Has Penny Mordaunt got any children?

• Married Ian Lyon in 1999
• Separated in 2010
• No children

Mordaunt married Ian Lyon in 1999, and the couple separated in 2010, according to Wikipedia’s biography (Wikipedia (biography)). They have no children. She has kept her private life out of the public record since the separation, and there is no documented remarriage.

Where does Penny Mordaunt live?

• Current residence: private
• Political base during her career: Portsmouth North

Mordaunt’s exact current address is not published, and this profile treats it as private information. What is documented is her parliamentary base: Portsmouth North, the constituency she represented for 14 years from 2010 to 2024 (UK Parliament (official member record)).

What this means: the reliable personal facts are few — married in 1999, separated in 2010, no children, residence private. Everything beyond that is not supported by the record.

How old is Penny Mordaunt?

• Born: 4 March 1973
• Place of birth: Torquay, Devon
• Age at exit: 51 in 2024

Penny Mordaunt was born Penelope Mary Mordaunt on 4 March 1973 in Torquay, Devon, according to Wikipedia (Wikipedia (biography)). She was 51 when she left the Commons in May 2024, and 49 when she reached the final three of the 2022 Conservative leadership contest.

Is Penny Mordaunt in The Lords?

• House of Lords: no
• Current status: not a member of either House

No. Mordaunt is not a member of the House of Lords, and she has not returned to Parliament in any capacity since leaving the Commons on 30 May 2024. Former MPs are not automatically offered seats in the Lords, and no appointment has been announced.

The arithmetic is the one part of her biography that never changes: born on 4 March 1973, and no seat in either House as of now.

What religion is Penny Mordaunt?

• Religion: practising Anglican (Church of England)
• Public role of faith: occasional, not platform-defining

Mordaunt is a practising Anglican (Wikipedia (biography)), a detail recorded in the same biographical sources that cover her marriage and personal life. She has spoken about her faith in public addresses, but it has never been a defining theme of her political career. In a public record dominated by defence, trade, and Commons procedure, her belief has stayed largely in the background.

The implication: for anyone researching her faith, the only firmly documented answer is “Anglican.” Framing beyond that — how central it is to her politics — is interpretation, not record.

Key dates in Penny Mordaunt’s career

Eight dates, one through-line: a rapid rise through every major domestic and defence brief, then a clean break in 2024.

• 4 March 1973 — Born in Torquay, Devon
• 2010 — Elected MP for Portsmouth North (UK Parliament (official member record))
• November 2017 — Appointed Secretary of State for International Development
• 2018 — Appointed Minister for Women and Equalities
• 2019 — Became Secretary of State for Defence, the first woman in the role (GOV.UK (ministerial record))
• 6 September 2022 — Became Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (GOV.UK (ministerial record))
• 2023 — Published Pomp and Circumstance
• 30 May 2024 — Left the House of Commons (UK Parliament (official member record))

The pattern: cabinet-level roles across her final seven years in the Commons, then an exit at the 2024 dissolution.

What’s confirmed, what’s unclear

Confirmed facts

• MP for Portsmouth North from 6 May 2010 to 30 May 2024 (UK Parliament (official member record))
• First woman to serve as Secretary of State for Defence (GOV.UK (ministerial record))
• Published Pomp and Circumstance in 2023 (Wikipedia (biography))

What’s unclear

• Her exact current residence
• The specific global advisory clients she works with
• Whether a return to elected office is planned — no public statement exists
• The day-to-day scope of her advisory portfolio, which rests on her own descriptions

The balance of evidence is clear: the public record is exhaustive about her parliamentary and ministerial career, and deliberately quiet about her life since May 2024.

Key quotes from the record

The most reliable statements about Mordaunt come from official records rather than interview fragments. Three sources define the factual spine of her career.

“Mordaunt served as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons from 6 September 2022 to 5 July 2024.”

GOV.UK (ministerial record)

“Her parliamentary service is recorded as running from 6 May 2010 to 30 May 2024.”

UK Parliament (official member record)

“Before entering elected politics, Mordaunt worked in public relations and communications.”

BBC News (profile)

What the record does not say is just as useful: none of these sources covers her current advisory clients, her residence, or her post-2024 plans.

Where Penny Mordaunt stands now

Mordaunt is best understood as a former cabinet minister whose official record is unusually complete. Her 14 years in the Commons, her cabinet-level roles, and her historic firsts are confirmed by primary sources. Her life after 30 May 2024 — advisory roles, writing, commentary — is real but documented mainly through her own descriptions. For journalists and researchers tracking former ministers, the choice is clear: lean on the parliamentary and ministerial records for her past, and label anything about her current work as self-reported until an organisation confirms it.

Frequently asked questions