Who is Penny Mordaunt, the ex-magician’s assistant looking to conjure up victory in PM race?
Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader and a former magician’s assistant, will be looking to conjure up the necessary support and pull victory out of a hat in her second bid to become prime minister.
Ms Mordaunt, who has earned a reputation as a competent performer at the despatch box, has said she would “keep calm and carry on” and urged others to do the same after Liz Truss’s resignation.
Popular with Tory activists, she has long nurtured prime ministerial ambitions, fellow MPs claim, relentlessly working the “rubber chicken circuit” of charity dinners and party events to court the grassroots since being elected to her Portsmouth North seat in 2010.
Ms Mordaunt, who has held cabinet posts, including defence secretary, ran to replace Boris Johnson in the first Conservative leadership race with the pithy slogan PM 4 PM.
During that campaign, the Royal Navy reservist, said leadership “needs to become a little less about the leader and a lot more about the ship”.
She came third, narrowly missing out on a place in the head-to-head stage, in which she backed Ms Truss over Rishi Sunak.
Named after the Navy cruiser HMS Penelope
Although she has previously faced accusations about her lack of profile outside politics, this changed after the Queen’s death when as Lord President of the Council she played a central role in proceedings in which Charles was proclaimed King.
Born in Torquay in March 1973, Ms Mordaunt’s history with the Armed Forces goes back to day one – when she says she was named after the Navy cruiser HMS Penelope.
Her father John served in the Parachute Regiment before retraining as a teacher and youth worker, and her mother Jennifer worked as a special needs teacher.
She grew up in Hampshire with her twin brother James and younger brother Edward.
Penny Mordaunt was the UK’s first-ever female defence secretary
When she was 15 her mother died of breast cancer and she became her younger brother’s primary carer until her father remarried when she was 18.
On leaving home, she went to Romania for a gap year during which she worked in orphanages and hospitals after the 1989 revolution that toppled the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.
Crediting those experiences with wanting to go into politics, she returned to the UK to study philosophy at the University of Reading, where she became president of the students’ union.
To fund her studies, she worked in a Johnson & Johnson factory and as a magician’s assistant to the president of the Portsmouth Magical Society and British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.
Worked on presidential campaign
She subsequently worked on George W Bush’s presidential campaigns and was a Conservative party staffer during William Hague’s leadership before branching out into the charity sector.
Winning the Portsmouth North constituency from Labour in 2010, one of her first claims to fame was an appearance on Tom Daley’s reality TV diving show Splash in 2014.
Told by judges she had the “elegance and drive of a paving slab” and criticised by her Labour rivals for not focusing on her day job, she claimed she did it so she could donate most of her £10,000 fee to saving a lido in her constituency.
She also raised eyebrows for a Commons speech in which she squeezed in repeated references to a rude word in a speech about poultry welfare – said to be part of a military bet – leading to accusations of “trivialising parliament”.
On Tom Daley’s reality TV diving show Splash in 2014. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
As a minister for local government, she caused further controversy when she got into a row with the Fire Brigades Union, which claimed she had “misled MPs” over assurances that firefighters would not have their pensions reduced if they failed fitness tests.
The dispute resulted in strike action.
A prominent Brexiteer, during the 2016 EU referendum campaign she made headlines for falsely claiming during an interview that the UK would not be able to stop Turkey from becoming a member of the bloc.
In 2017 when Priti Patel was forced to resign as international development secretary over undeclared meetings with Israeli officials, Ms Mordaunt replaced her.
She added women and equalities minister to her brief in 2018.
That year she was applauded in the Commons for being the first MP to ever use sign language at the despatch box.
The MP campaigned with Boris Johnson for Brexit
She made history again in 2019 when Theresa May made her the UK’s first-ever female defence secretary.
But she only served for 85 days before Boris Johnson punished her for backing his rival Jeremy Hunt in the Tory leadership contest and demoted her.
Last year she published a book outlining her hopes for post-Brexit Britain.
Ms Mordaunt said it was only through writing it that she realised she was dyslexic and was formally diagnosed.
Trans rights criticism
She has also come under scrutiny over her record on trans rights and self-identification, with critics accusing her of being “too woke”.
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‘A woman like me doesn’t have a Willie’
While serving as women and equalities minister, she publicly stated that “trans women are women and trans men are men”.
She also came under fire for opting to replace the words “woman” and “mother” with “person” in maternity leave legislation.
‘I am biologically a woman’
However, she had also faced claims she has abandoned her support of the trans community for the sake of her political career.
At her previous campaign launch she said: “I am a woman, I am biologically a woman.
“And I can tell you that if you have been in the Royal Navy and competed against men, you understand the biological difference between men and women.”
During the bitter leadership contest, Ms Mordaunt had doubt cast on her ministerial commitment by her own boss.
She later joked she was “amazed” to be back at the Commons despatch box given her “reported work ethic”.
A member of the British Astronomical Association, she has four Burmese cats.
She will now be looking to magic a win in her second tilt at the leadership and ensure her campaign does not end up a vanishing act.
A father and son have been identified as the suspected gunmen in the terror attack on a Jewish event in Bondi Beach which killed at least 15 people.
More than 1,000 people were celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on the beach on Sunday evening when two people opened fire on them.
Those killed in the attack range from 10 years of age to 87, including a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor, while 38 others have been injured.
One of the alleged gunmen has been named by New South Wales (NSW) police as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, while the other has been identified as his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram.
How did they carry out the attack?
Footage shows the gunmen start firing into the crowd from a footbridge that leads over a car park to the beach.
Sky News has identified from the footage that the younger gunman was using a rifle, while the older one was using a semi-automatic shotgun.
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What’s been said about the gunmen
Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers searched two properties in connection with the suspects and found that the father had six firearms licenced to him.
Follow live: 15 people and gunman killed in shooting
He said they were confident that those firearms were the six found at the scene of the shooting.
More footage from the scene showed that a man, later identified as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen, believed to be the father Sajid, before pointing his own weapon at him, which was empty.
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Moment ‘hero’ disarmed gunman
The footage then showed the disarmed gunman running towards where the other gunman was located. Mr Ahmed was shot twice in the incident and required surgery, his family said.
The shooting is estimated to have gone on for roughly 10 minutes from 6.47pm. Eventually, the police took down the gunmen 75 seconds apart on the bridge.
Read more:
The victims of Bondi terror attack
Eyewitness accounts of ‘utter panic and chaos’
The father was killed at the scene by police, while the son was shot and wounded.
He is being treated at a hospital, according to police. Mr Lanyon said he “may well” face criminal charges.
In an update on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC that the suspect was in a coma.
He also said there were a range of IEDs and “explosive devices” in their car that they intended to use to “cause further damage”.
What do we know about their backgrounds?
Sajid Akram arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and transferred to a partner visa three years later, before becoming a permanent resident, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Officials have not disclosed what country he migrated from.
He had his gun licence for approximately a decade and held a gun club membership, Mr Lanyon said.
The younger suspect was an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in October 2019, Mr Albanese told reporters.
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Younger gunman was part of 2019 ‘investigation’
“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese said the suspect was investigated for six months over his connections to two people who later went to jail, one man for planning terror attacks.
He said he was not put on a watch list because the investigation uncovered no evidence that he was planning or considering any act of antisemitic violence.
Neither the father nor son have been on the ASIO’s radar since the 7 October Hamas attacks, he added.
What do we know about the motives?
New South Wales Police designated the attack a terrorist incident, and Mr Lanyon said a “significant investigation” would be led by counterterrorism and that “no stone will be left unturned”.
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Community mourns after attack
“When I asked for calm, that is really important,” he said. “This is not a time for retribution. This is a time to allow the police to do their duty. So police are responding to make sure that all of the community is safe.”
Mr Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.
On Monday, he said the attackers were “two evil people… driven by ideology” whose actions were the result of an “extreme perversion of Islam”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said after the attack: “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack.”
Pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been found guilty of national security offences in Hong Kong.
The media tycoon and British citizen, 78, was arrested in August 2020 after China imposed a national security law following massive anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Sky News’ Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith, who is at West Kowloon Law Courts Building, said Mr Lai looked “drawn and thin” as he listened to the verdict being delivered.
He had previously been sentenced for several lesser offences during his five years in prison.
Mr Lai, who founded the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, as well as one count of conspiracy to distribute seditious publications.
He has been found guilty of all three charges.
His trial, heard by three judges approved by the government without a jury present, has been closely monitored by the UK, the US, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Mr Lai has spent more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement. His family say his health has worsened as a result and that he suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart palpitations.
In August, Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, told Sky News that unless the British government (of which Mr Lai is a citizen) intervenes, his father “is most likely going to die in jail”.
Lai arriving at court in 2020. Pic: AP
Sebastien said his father’s death would not just be a personal tragedy, but a huge problem for both the Hong Kong authorities and Beijing’s government.
“You can’t tell the world you have the rule of law, the free press and all these values that are instrumental to a financial centre and still have my father in jail,” he told Sky News.
“And if he dies, that’s it, that’s a comma on Hong Kong as a financial centre.”
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A bystander hailed a hero after he tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen in the Bondi Beach shooting is a shop owner.
The man, named by a relative as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, was seen in a video running up to the attacker from behind and then grabbing the shotgun from his hands before pointing the weapon back at him.
The footage then showed the terrorist heading towards a bridge where another gunman was located, while the bystander placed the gun beside a tree.
Ahmed al Ahmed (in a white T-shirt) is seen in a video running up to a gunman from behind
Mr Ahmed then wrestles with the attacker
Live updates on Sydney shooting
Mr Ahmed, who was wearing a white T-shirt, was shot twice in the incident and was due to have surgery, his cousin, Mustafa, has revealed.
In a video on 7News, Mr Ahmed appeared to have a bloodied arm and hand, and was helped by other people near the scene in the Australian city.
At least 11 people were killed and 29 others injured in the attack when two gunmen opened fire from a bridge on crowds at a Jewish event around 6pm local time on Sunday evening.
More than 1,000 people had been at the gathering which was celebrating the festival of Hanukkah.
Mr Ahmed manages to get the gun off the terrorist
The bystander then points the weapon at the attacker who moves away towards a bridge
A gunman was killed and another was in a critical condition following the shooting.
One of the suspects was 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
His driver’s licence says he lives in Bonnyrigg, a suburb of Sydney. The identity of the other suspected attacker is not known.
Naveed Akram, 24, was one of the suspects
Mustafa said father-of-two Mr Ahmed, who owns a fruit shop in the Sydney suburb of Sutherland, did not have any experience with guns but was just walking past when he decided to step in.
He told 7News: “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.
“We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero, 100%.”
Read more:
What we know about mass shooting
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One of the suspected gunmen has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram.
The footage of the bystander’s actions spread quickly on social media as people praised the man for his bravery, saying his actions had potentially saved many lives.
“Australian hero (random civilian) wrestles gun off attacker and disarms him. Some people are brave and then some people are… whatever this is,” one person said on X, sharing the video.
“This Australian man saved countless lives by stripping the gun off one of the terrorists at Bondi beach. HERO,” another said.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state, where Sydney is located, said it was the “most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen”.
“A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”
“That man is a genuine hero, and I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,” he added.
The country’s prime minister Anthony Albanese praised the actions of Australians who had “run towards danger in order to help others”.
“These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,” he told a news conference.
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