Keighley MP Robbie Moore said Penny Mordaunt’s “wealth of experience” would make her an effective prime minister, adding that he hopes she keeps Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor.

Mr Moore (Keighley & Ilkley) has spoken out on the issue of the Conservative leadership race, with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex Chancellor Rishi Sunak among the frontrunner.

Mr Moore, who took the Keighley seat from Labour's John Grogan at the last election, said: “So Penny has held nine different portfolios over eight ministerial departments over 12 years.

“She has a wealth of experience over many government departments and the ability to then bring that to the top job is great.

“And Penny will be able to use that breadth of skills she has got, as well as her calmness, her decisive decision-making, her ability to communicate, and also unify all parts of the parliamentary party to go forward, to crack on, to deliver what our constituents want, which is how we are going to improve their communities for the better.

“We have just seen a new Chancellor be appointed and with that appointment came a huge amount of markets reassurance, stability being installed, which is what we need to do.

“I would quite like to see Penny keep the Chancellor in his position.”

On whether the next Tory prime minister will have democratic legitimacy without a fresh general election mandate, Mr Moore said: “Well, first of all I think the last thing that anybody wants is more of an economic shock, more instability that is created, and I think absolutely the last thing we need is a general election at this moment in time.

“My view is we need to unite behind a candidate that is able to drive us forward in delivering on those manifesto commitments of 2019, and Penny is absolutely the right person to be able to do that.”

Asked why he is supporting her when she came third in the last leadership contest, he added: “So Penny came third in the last parliamentary election that Conservative MPs had the ability to vote on, but that was only by eight votes so she was incredibly close.

“And that’s why we find ourselves in this position – all Conservative MPs have the ability to make that decision of who they want to put forward, but in Penny we have a candidate that is able to reach out to all sides of the parliamentary party.”