By: Ariana Liu

Penny Mordaunt told BBC that “there were a number of smears going on in the

papers” and countered claims that she had ever backed gender self-identification.

Mordaunt is one of five candidates that remains in the leadership race, with the

next round of voting on Monday.

The five candidates fight for Boris Johnson’s position as Tory leader and prime

minister. They will face off in the second televised debate on Sunday evening.

The debate, starting at 19:00 BST will take place ahead of the MP’s voting on

Monday, where the bottom placed candidate will be knocked out.

Mordaunt, the second-place candidate at the time of the last voting round says her

focus will be on the cost-living-crisis.

She was also asked about her stance on how people should be allowed to legally

change their gender.

Sophie Raworth, journalist, asked Mordaunt on her opinion on trans people getting

a diagnosis of gender dysphoria before they could legally change their gender, to

which she responded “Yes.”

The questioning came after the Sunday Times claimed it had seen government

papers that suggested Mordaunt favored removing at least one element of the

medical process required for transgender people to legally transition.

“We all know what’s going on. This is the type of toxic politics that people want to

get away from,” Mordaunt said.

“The poor British public have a month of this to go, they’ve got a month of us

choosing our prime minister. It’s an opportunity for our party to show ourselves at

our best. We should be talking and focusing on the issues that concern them.”

On her view of cost of living, Mordaunt said that she would not set out detailed tax

and spending plans at this stage, as the contest was the “wrong place to do it”.

However, she did say that she planned to halve VAT on petrol and raise tax

thresholds in order to help people who are struggling.

Mordant acknowledged that the tax cut plan would increase government debt to

fund daily spending, she says: “We will have to do that for some time. The

important thing is that debt (to GDP) ratio will fall over time.”