Penny Mordaunt’s Tory conference speech was certainly rousing on Wednesday – but no one was entirely clear what it was about.
And clips of the leader of the House of Commons’ emotional address have already gone viral because of how persistently she uses the phrase: “Stand up and fight.”
“Stand up and fight for the freedoms we have won,” she began, speaking passionately in front of her lectern.
She continued: “Against socialism, whether it is made of velvet or iron, have courage, and conviction – because when you do, you move our countrymen, our communities and capital of all kinds to our cause.”
At this point, the senior Tory started to point at the crowd for emphasis, adding: ″Stand up and fight – because when you stand up and fight, the person besides you and fights.
″And when our party stands up and fights, the nation stands up and fights.
“And when our nation stands up and fights, other nations stand up and fight.
″And they stand up and fight for the things for which the entire progress of humanity depends!”
Taking a breath, she said: “Freedom. That is what Conservatives do.
“That is what this nation does.”
Building up volume, Mordaunt went to hammer the message home: “Have courage. Bring hope. Stand up and fight.”
And once more, for emphasis, she shouted: “Stand up and fight!”
And then, Mordaunt suddenly ended her speech, thanking the conference, pointing her finger and shaking her hand high above her head once again, before running off stage.
While the speech may have slipped under the radar at the time – as she spoke shortly before PM Rishi Sunak – clips of the address have since secured more than two million views in less than 24 hours.
And, as you can imagine, people on X (formerly Twitter) had a lot of thoughts...