Coronation: I took painkillers before carrying sword, says Penny Mordaunt

Penny Mordaunt has said she took a mates of painkillers to assistance her get done her relation of carrying ceremonial swords during the King's Coronation.

The Tory curate won praise for her stamina, carrying the 17th Century Sword of State and Jewelled Sword of Offering for much than an hour.

Working connected the coronation has been a "huge privilege," Ms Mordaunt said.

She told Nick Robinson's Political Thinking podcast she enjoyed becoming a deed connected societal media aft the ceremony.

"I was reunited with my telephone and recovered I had go a meme," she said.

She said she saw photoshopped images connected societal media of the sword replaced by a kebab the laurel motif connected her formal likened to Poundland's firm branding.

"I accidental good done to the Great British public."

Asked if she had been successful training, she said: "I was not successful the gym for six months anterior to this" but added: "You privation to marque definite you are successful bully nick.

"I did instrumentality a mates of painkillers earlier conscionable to marque definite I was going to beryllium alright."

Ms Mordaunt said her navy grooming successful Portsmouth besides helped her cognize however to support her circulation going by "wriggling your toes".

Anyone hoping to emulate her feat should "practice", "have a bully breakfast", and "wear comfy shoes", she added.

She carried the 17th period Sword of State made for Charles II into Westminster Abbey, and exchanged it for the Jewelled Sword of Offering, which symbolises royal powerfulness and the monarch accepting his work and knightly virtues.

She carried the Jewelled Sword of Offering, with hilt encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, for the remainder of the work and walked with it successful beforehand of the King arsenic helium near the abbey.

They were 2 of 4 swords utilized successful the ceremony, a signifier which dates backmost to the coronation of Richard the Lionheart successful 1189.

Notably, Ms Mordaunt becomes the archetypal pistillate to transportation and contiguous the sword.

The tally up to the coronation was a "highly affectional time", she said.

"It is bully to beryllium recognised deliberation I was a spot of a metaphor for everyone connected the time - everyone did their bit, everyone did it truly well."

Ms Mordaunt's formal besides sparked galore comments, with viewers comparing her to Princess Leia from Star Wars connected societal media.

"That's not the look I was going for," she said.

While her predecessors would person worn "formal dress, which is black," Ms Mordaunt said she wanted to bespeak the modern code of the coronation "with humanities references".

Alongside her relation arsenic Leader of the House, Ms Mordaunt is besides Lord President of the Privy Council. The relation usually requires chairing meetings of the Privy Council, a radical of the UK's astir elder politicians charged with presenting concern to the King.

"I thought I'm going to bargain a modern dress" and past embroider it with the fern motif of the privy assembly "as a motion to the past".

In September, then-Prime Minister Liz Truss gave Ms Mordaunt, her one-time rival for the enactment leadership, the occupation of Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council.