Penny Mordaunt MP was pictured at an event wearing a submariners badge she is not qualified to wear.
The Royal Navy says it would be inappropriate for a non-submariner to wear submariner’s insignia on a naval uniform. However, Ms Mordaunt was presented with the insignia by the Royal Navy, and was given explicit permission to wear it on civilian clothes during the event at which she’s pictured.
An image of Conservative MP and Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt, wearing a badge awarded to submariners has been circulating on social media, with some claiming it was inappropriate for her to be wearing it despite not having served as a submariner herself.
The image in question shows Ms Mordaunt attending a service at Westminster Abbey commemorating 50 years of the UK’s Continuous At Sea Deterrent (CASD). At this time she was serving as defence secretary.
Ms Mordaunt is displaying a Gold Dolphin Badge—sometimes referred to as “Dolphins”. The badge is an insignia awarded to submariners upon completing the Submarine Qualifying Course.
Ms Mordaunt has previously served as a naval reservist, but she was not deployed as a submariner.
Full Fact contacted the Royal Navy and Ms Mordaunt, both of whom confirmed that she had been given the badge by the Navy and was given explicit permission to wear it on the occasion when the image was taken.
Ms Mordaunt told us that she was presented with the badge after participating in a ceremony awarding the first cohort of women submariners with their own Dolphins following their first deployment.
She could not confirm when this presentation took place, but said that it would have been a few years prior to the image of her at the service pictured in the Facebook post, which took place on 3 May 2019.
She added that she had been asked by the Royal Navy to wear the badge, and service tartan, at the service, and that since being presented with them had worn the Dolphins on around three occasions, receiving permission from the Navy to do so each time.
A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “Civilian personnel, including Honorary Officers who have a close affiliation with the Service, are often presented with pin badges to mark the relationship, which they may wear on civilian clothing. It is not intended to represent an individual having completed military qualifications.
“The Right Honourable (Rt Hon) Penny Mordaunt MP was presented with the Dolphins before the National Service of Thanksgiving to mark 50 years of the Continuous at Sea Deterrent (CASD) at Westminster Abbey on 3 May 2019. The Dolphins were presented by the Head of the Royal Navy Submarine Service, with permission from the Service to wear them on civilian clothes.”
Full Fact also confirmed that while it would be considered inappropriate for a non-submariner to wear this badge on a Naval uniform, the Royal Navy has regularly given non-military personnel permission to wear Dolphins and other military insignia to highlight special links with particular military branches.
Other non-submariners to have been pictured wearing the Dolphins include Prince William, who also wore them at the 2019 CASD service, and the Princess of Wales, who was pictured wearing them at the Queen’s diamond jubilee flotilla display in 2012.
Image courtesy of Ministry of Defence
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the Royal Navy says it would be inappropriate for a non-submariner to wear submariner’s insignia on a naval uniform. However, Ms Mordaunt was presented with the insignia by the Royal Navy, and was given explicit permission to wear it on civilian clothes during the event at which she’s pictured.
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