Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire paid tribute to Penny Mordaunt’s Coronation work.
“She was a symbol of solemnity, the first woman to have ever presented the Jewelled Sword of Offering to a British Monarch,” she told MPs, “she was a credit to this House as our representative”.
She added: “It was an even bigger achievement, come to think of how long she must have been awake the previous night counting all those Tory losses [in the 2023 local elections]”.
The SNP’s Deidre Brock said Ms Mordaunt had “commendable upper body strength,” but asked if the sword she was carrying was “the Sword of Damocles”.