King Charles’ sword-wielding minister Penny Mordaunt soars in UK Cabinet ranking

LONDON — The path to popularity in the U.K.’s Conservatives is simple — just successfully wield a massive sword at the king’s coronation.

Fresh from her exploits at the coronation of King Charles III earlier May, House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt is now — according to the grassroots Tory website ConservativeHome — the second most popular Cabinet minister in the U.K. government, behind only the Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

In her role as lord president of the privy council, Mordaunt gained international attention as she carried the sword of state and gave the jeweled sword of offering to Charles as he was formally crowned. The sword itself has since become a tourist hit at the Tower of London.

ConHome’s latest monthly Cabinet league table ranking, surveying party members, suggests Mordaunt’s part in the royal pomp hit all the right notes with the Tory faithful.

In the list for May, Mordaunt climbs from fourth most popular minister to second, with a net satisfaction rating of 62.4.

Mordaunt displaced Kemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, who has seen her popularity among members slip since her decision to ditch the government’s so-called ‘Brexit bonfire bill‘ of retained EU law. Badenoch now sits fourth in the rankings, having previously claimed second place behind Wallace, who has consistently ranked highly among Tory members amid the Ukraine war.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Health Secretary Steve Barclay are the other senior ministers rounding out the top five.

Rishi Sunak is the 14th most popular minister in the ranking, while a record six ministers are now in negative ratings, suggesting they all need to up their giant ceremonial sword game.