Johnson: I found it hard not to laugh when Mordaunt said trans was issue of our times

Boris Johnson struggled to keep a straight face as Penny Mordaunt told him that gender recognition for trans people was the “most important issue of our times”.He reveals in his memoirs that the former Tory leadership candidate had raised the issue in Cabinet.But both he and Lord Hammond of Runnymede, the former Chancellor, found it hard to contain their amusement during her long speech. Ms Mordaunt served as equalities minister while Lady May was prime minister, and sat at the Cabinet table. Mr Johnson was the foreign secretary.Later, in 2022, Ms Mordaunt’s advocacy of “woke” policies such as trans rights came under scrutiny as she ran for the Tory leadership, and she was forced to row back on her support for the issue.In his book Unleashed, which is being serialised by the Daily Mail, he wrote that Lady May once announced “in breathy vicar’s-daughter tones” that Ms Mordaunt had “something very important to talk…