Penny Mordaunt: A very quick guide to the rising star who might be PM
You might not know about Penny Mordaunt if you don't normally follow politics. Here's a quick recap of the MP's recent rise. 
Despite starting as a lesser-known candidate, she made it to the final three before losing out to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. She campaigned strongly for Brexit, but experts say she's trying to appeal to everyone in a very divided party.
rganise the process by which MPs can ask questions and debate issues in the House of Commons. At one point she had to explain Truss was not "hiding under a desk", when the prime minister didn't turn up to answer questions.
Some objected to her statements of support for trans rights while equalities minister. She later rowed back on them, saying "if you've been in the Royal Navy, and you have competed physically against men, you understand the biological difference between men and women".
Former Brexit minister Lord Frost said that when she was his deputy in negotiations, "sometimes I didn't even know where she was".
She was a navy reservist and was appointed the UK's first-ever female defence secretary by Theresa May - before being removed by Boris Johnson. Her father was a paratrooper and she is named after the cruiser HMS Penelope.
Other previous jobs include working in orphanages in Romania during her gap year. In 2014, while an MP, she appeared on ITV's Splash!, where she was mentored on diving by Tom Daley.
Also in 2014, she gave a speech on "poultry welfare" after a dare by her navy training officers. She later explained she had to "say a particular word, the abbreviation of cockerel, several times during a speech on the floor".