Penny Mordaunt has vowed to make defence the “first obligation” of presidency ought to she emerge victorious within the Conservative management race.
The commerce minister and former defence secretary surged forward of Overseas Secretary Liz Truss after the primary spherical of voting by Tory MPs, regardless of being seen as a relative outlier earlier than the race started.
Writing for the Every day Mail, Ms Mordaunt promised to honour the UK’s Nato dedication of spending 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030, as she mentioned Britain must “maintain quick” to the nation’s shared values of “energy, equity and decency, (and) a willingness to face up for what is correct”.
She wrote: “The defence of the realm is the primary obligation of any authorities.
“We’ll stand with Nato in defence of our widespread values and we won’t flinch from the laborious graft and placing boots on the bottom on the alliance’s borders.”
Ms Mordaunt mentioned she would maintain agency to the UK’s place on the battle in Ukraine, stressing Russia “should lose the battle”.
“We should maintain our place in Ukraine. There can’t be any territory ceded to Russia,” she mentioned.
“Though that will likely be troublesome, now we have to be sincere with our those who we have to do this for our personal security and safety.”
