Penny Mordaunt says painkillers and good breakfast helped her carry coronation sword

‘You want to make sure you are in good nick’, says senior Tory

Tory cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt has revealed she took painkillers to help her carry ceremonial swords during Charles III’s coronation.

The Commons leader said she enjoyed all the attention received after emerging as the surprise star of the Westminster Abbey ceremony on Saturday.

Asked if she had been in training, Ms Mordaunt told the BBC Political Thinking podcast: “I was not in the gym for six months”, but added: “You want to make sure you are in good nick.”

The senior Tory added: “I did take a couple of painkillers before just to make sure I was going to be alright.”

Ms Mordaunt said the best advice for holding an eight-pound sword steady for almost an hour was to “have a good breakfast” and “wear comfortable shoes”.

She told podcast host Nick Robinson she had was pleased by the praise on social media. “I was reunited with my phone and found I had become a meme,” she said, adding that “it is nice to be recognised”.

Ms Mordaunt appears to have boosted her chances of leading the Tory party after her central role upholding the sword of state during the ceremony.

The Commons leader, also Lord President of the Privy Council, held it for 51 minutes before exchanging it for the jewelled sword of offering and presenting it to the King.

Some viewers mocked her teal caped dress, embroidered with a golden fern, by comparing her to a Star Wars or Game of Thrones character – but bookmakers slashed odds of her succeeding Rishi Sunak.

Asked about the Princess Leia comparisons, Ms Mordaunt said: “That’s not the look I was going for.”

The “Poseidon” teal colour of the dress by luxury designer Safiyaa, which she paid for herself, was a reference to her Portsmouth constituency.

Following Boris Johnson’s resignation over the Partygate scandal last July, Ms Mordaunt enjoyed surprise momentum behind her bid to enter No 10 – eventually losing to Ms Sunak and Ms Truss in the fifth round.