Irish comedian Vittorio Angelone has been praised by viewers for his merciless takedown of former Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt during an episode of The Last Leg.
Mordaunt was on the Channel 4 comedy panel show discussing her role as an ambassador for the Music Man Project, a choir formed of people with learning disabilities.
While going over the week’s headlines, host Adam Hills and his co-stars Alex Brooker and Josh Widdecombe turned their attention to a new disability storyline in the animated children’s programme Peppa Pig.
“I know disability representation’s a big thing for you, Penny, because you are an ambassador for something called the Music Man Project, which we had on the show last year,” Hills said.
After listening to Mordaunt talk about the project, Angelone sparked laughter and applause when he remarked: “Penny’s always been such a supporter of disabled people, you’re very supportive of the prosthetics industry… You were promoting on Twitter an arms fair in Saudi Arabia recently?”
Mordaunt – who served as defence secretary for 85 days before being ousted by the then-prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019 – shared a post to X on 16 February congratulating UK companies that exhibited at the World Defence Show in Saudi Arabia.
“You’ve got to let me respond to that,” the visibly unimpressed Mordaunt told Angelone in response, attempting to make a case for investing in British defence “in this particular week”, seemingly referring to the conflict between the US and Iran.
“I’m on your side,” Angelone said, to which Mordaunt responded: “I don’t think you are, sweetheart.”
After calling her remark “patronising”, the comedian shot back: “As a positive thing I think it’s great, war-mongering has always been a male-dominated industry, you’ve smashed the glass ceiling.”
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Mordaunt told Angelone she would like to introduce him to “some other women that put their lives on the line to defend people like you being able to do what you want to do in your life, and make jokes about the government and all sorts of things, and enjoy the freedoms that we do in this country.”
“It’s a tough sell to a guy from Belfast,” Angelone said in his parting quip, to more laughter.
“Penny Mordaunt is fuming on The Last Leg after being the butt of a joke by Vittorio Angelone,” one viewer said on X. “She was really not amused! It was hilarious!”
The episode marked Angelone’s debut on the show, appearing with Mordaunt and comedian Jamli Maddix, plus host Hills and his co-stars Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker.
