Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt says she is 'half-way house' between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who has joined the race to be the next prime minister

Ms Mordaunt, who has represented Portsmouth North since 2010 and was made leader of the House of Commons under previous PM Liz Truss, appeared on BBC politics show Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

Having been the first candidate to launch their bid and so far gaining more than 20 backers, the MP said she could unite the party by being a ‘halfway house’ between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

The Tory leadership candidate told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘I was a halfway house between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak and I deeply regret that the debate now is about ‘are you for stability or low taxes’.

‘That’s not the right construct. There are two sides of the same coin. You have to have stability in order to deliver low tax and you have to have low taxes in order to grow the economy and create that stability.

‘That is what I am standing for. That is why I think I’m best placed to unite our party.’

She added that the contest ‘shouldn’t be about personalities running or the Westminster bubble’ but instead should focus on what candidates will do for the country.

But when pressed on her policies, the MP wouldn’t be drawn on whether she would cut health spending, ensure benefit payments kept up with inflation, or increase defence spending to three per cent, as former prime minister Liz Truss pledged.

The interview comes as Rishi Sunak has officially declared that he is running in the race, after meeting the contest’s threshold of more than 100 Tory MP supporters.

In a post on social media, the former chancellor – who was fined in the Partygate scandal and resigned from former prime minster Boris Johnson’s government amid the Chris Pincher scandal – said: ‘There will be integrity and accountability at every level of the government I lead.’