The controversy surrounding her views on transgender rights, which has dogged her campaign since the start, also continues to prove a major distraction.
Nadine Dorries has launched a fresh attack on the leadership, hopeful over its role in maternity legislation which applied to pregnant people rather than women.
The culture secretary said Ms Mordaunt sent her text message dismissing her concerns and told her to “focus not on that but on the positives”.
Ms Mordaunt insisted she had fought to change the language, although that claim was also contested by Suella Braverman, the attorney general.
On Tuesday, she launched a bid to bring back her bid for Number 10 by pledging to give local residents greater legal powers to block development.
Writing in The Telegraph, she pledged to improve neighborhood plans, which allow communities to choose where new homes are built.
“We have to build, but we can only do it with the support of communities, rather than leaving them under siege by developers,” she said.
Community engagement leads to ‘more buildings’
“We know that communities that participate in local plans end up supporting more buildings, not less, because they feel empowered.”
Ms Mordaunt also promised to scrap the binding housing targets currently imposed on councils, arguing they “don’t work”.
She said she would do more to protect green belt land from development, but also cut red tape that slows down thousands of derelict industrial sites.
Ms Mordaunt added that she would place a strong emphasis on building more in urban areas to “re-invigorate and revitalize our town centres”.
In a shock result on Monday, Ms Mordaunt slipped back in the third round of the leadership vote, losing one supporter but still coming second with the support of 82 MPs.
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