The only blood Penny Mordaunt managed to draw in this debate was Rishi Sunak’s

The leader of the Commons flailed her sword about wildly against Labour, but beheaded her boss with ruthless precision, writes Joe Murphy

Magnificent seven: a quick photo opportunity before the debate started (PA)

Savour for a moment the dilemma confronting Penny Mordaunt. She’s got a prime TV slot to promote the Conservatives on the very day that her boss, Rishi Sunak, is deep in the mire for dodging D-Day. Will she whip out that famous jewelled coronation sword to fend off his attackers?

But, hang on a moment: our Penny is also keen to promote her deep ambition to be the next Tory leader. She’s popular with the military, daughter of a paratrooper, named after a warship and now MP for a naval city. Where’s the advantage to her in defending Sunak?

So when the first question in the seven-way BBC election debate came from Francis, the son of a Normandy veteran, there was a genuine tension in the air.

Mordaunt, the Commons leader, stood motionless as Nigel Farage put the first boot into the PM’s “dreadful desertion” of the veterans. Eyes sternly ahead, hair lacquered into a rigid roman helmet. Finally, the sword came out.

“What happened was very wrong,” she said in an executioner voice, her blade taking Sunak’s head clear off his shoulders. No alibis. No sympathy. No pity.

It was a memorable start to a debate that, for all the flaws of a format that attempts to get seven party representatives to discuss the key issues, actually managed to tell us a lot about the election and the political struggles that will inevitably follow it.

By chance (because the places on stage are determined by drawing lots) Nigel Farage was on the fringe of the platform. He had some good lines, branding Keir Starmer as “Blair without the flair” and mocking “slippery Sunak” and teasing Angie Rayner as “the real Labour leader – at least she has some personality”. He did his usual turn, calling on people to “join the revolt” and trotting out embarrassing numbers on immigration, tax and the decline of the military.

But the striking thing was that hardly anyone clapped him. According to the polls, Reform is nibbling the Tories’ toes, and since the studio audience was handpicked to reflect the polls, a fifth of it must have been sympathetic to Farage. Yet his one-liners got at best a smattering of claps, including on immigration, his specialist topic, while his opponents were clapped loudly for praising migrant workers.

Farage looked deflated by the end. He prides himself on being the man of the people, but his people appeared to be ashamed to clap him in public. He promised to be the “fox in the henhouse”, yet he failed to get the chickens squawking.

In a future world it is possible to imagine prime minister Rayner being hectored at the despatch by opposition leader Mordaunt. So it was a happy accident that put these two women next to each other on stage to show what they could do.

Mordaunt kicked off this side-contest by accusing Rayner of failing to support the nuclear deterrent. “Imagine what Putin would be thinking,” she cried. If Putin was watching the BBC on the Kremlin TV, he would have seen the Commons leader pointing at Rayner with her whole arm, like a Flying Helmets motorcyclist making a right turn.

Rayner was restrained. “Penny, you can keep pointing at me, but you are the party that have cut the armed forces.” Her brother served in Iraq, she reminded her, and she wouldn’t take any lessons.

For the rest of the evening, Mordaunt took every opportunity to talk over Rayner, largely ignoring the smaller parties and did her level best to revive the Tories’ dodgy claim that Labour will heap £2,000 of extra tax on every household. “That is a lie,” responded Rayner, putting it down more firmly than Starmer did in his debate with Sunak, though Mordaunt kept battering away with the tax issue.

Liz Truss’s name was invoked by Rayner for “crashing the economy”, confirming that the former PM is one of Labour’s favourite assets. “Liz Truss even on her worst day would not get rid of nuclear weapons,” responded Mordaunt.

Mishal Husain, chairing with crisp precision, let them talk over each other for a minute and then intervened with: “It’s time to hear from the others.”

Rayner succeeded in keeping the People’s Ming vase intact for another night. She was restrained throughout, and a model of loyalty to Starmer. No great zingers, but a professional performance that will have pleased her high command. On tax, she gave a hostage to fortune, staring deep into the camera, eyes wide and innocent: “Labour will not put taxes up for working people.” One to replay in a year or two, perhaps.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, is best known for being the angriest Tory-hater in the Commons. But he used his ammunition on Labour, the threat to his party in Edinburgh. He also showed a softer side, speaking of receiving care from 14 to 32 as “a disabled man”. Not once did he mention Scottish independence.

Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, talked up leader Ed Davey, telling us that anyone who watched his broadcast about his disabled son would have thought what a great PM he would make.

Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Greens, won the best newcomer award, attacking Labour from the left and getting warm applause for championing migrant workers, saying that if you met a migrant in an NHS setting they were more likely to be a medic than someone in the queue.

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, was huge and imposing and had some nice lines, but everyone else simply ignored him.

At the end, Mordaunt looked deflated. After all her efforts, no blood had been shed except for the prime minister’s. The Ming vase was still being carried safely towards No 10.