Penny Mordaunt deletes tweet claiming her opponents would 'murder' the Tory party if elected

Penny Mordaunt has deleted a tweet which took campaigning in the Tory leadership contest to an odd new level.

The leadership contender’s Twitter account posted an article from the Daily Telegraph with the headline: “Tory MPs - vote for Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss today and you’ll murder the party you love," which was a comment piece written by Allison Pearson.

According to the Mirror, it’s not known whether Mordaunt posted the tweet herself, or whether it was posted by a staff member. A source in her campaign told The Independent: “The campaign tweeted this in error without having seen the headline.”

Either way, it didn't look great especially given two MPs have literally been murdered in recent years, Jo Cox and David Amess, and the tweet was swiftly deleted.

But not before people on social media saved it forever.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Pearson's article argued that Labour's Keir Starmer would beat Truss or Sunak in a general election, in part because of the optics of mega-wealthy Sunak leading during a cost of living crisis and because Truss is "wooden".

Meanwhile, the next round of voting takes place to whittle Mordaunt, Truss and Sunak down to two candidates. After Tory MPs have done that, the vote will go to the wider Tory membership and the result is expected in early September.

Let's hope they keep the fight a little cleaner from here on out.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.