Jacob Rees-Mogg



Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British Conservative politician. He was Leader of the House of Commons (2019–2022) and Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency (2022) and served as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy during the brief premiership of Liz Truss. Rees-Mogg was the Member of Parliament for North East Somerset from 2010 to the 2024 general election. He was knighted in Boris Johnson's Resignation Honours

1999

 * Pakistanis, living in England? They're not in a class by nature of where they've come from.
 * Interview with Ali G (16 February 1999).

2010

 * I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about the nanny [...] If I’d had a valet, you’d think it was perfectly normal.
 * Interviewed by Camilla Long "Maybe he’s canvassing in the King of Spain’s private loo" The Times (11 April 2010)
 * A reference to being accompanied by his nanny, Veronica Crook, when campaigning in Central Fife during the 1997 general election.

2011

 * I'm a man of the people. Vox populi, vox dei.
 * Interviewed by the BBC as part of the programme Posh and Posher: Why Public School Boys Run Britain (19 January 2011).


 * We could have two referendums. As it happens it might make more sense to have the second referendum after the renegotiation is completed.
 * Speech in Parliament during a debate on whether to hold a referendum on the UK's EU membership (24 October 2011).

2012

 * the county of Somerset as defined by the Lieutenants Act shall revert to the customary time used prior to the Great Western Railway time established in 1840
 * Tory MP calls for Somerset to have its own time zone BBC News (18 January 2012).


 * Basically I want people to be able to get on with their lives without the government bossing them about. I’m all in favour of nannies but not the nanny state.
 * Interviewed by the Guardian (2 March 2012).

2016
I accept that we're not going to allow dangerous toys to come in from China, we don't want to see those kind of risks. But there's a very long way you can go.
 * We could, if we wanted, accept emissions standards from India, America, and Europe. There'd be no contradiction with that [...] We could say, if it's good enough in India, it's good enough for here. There’s nothing to stop that.
 * We could take it a very long way. American emission standards are fine – probably in some cases higher.
 * At a Treasury Select Committee hearing, as cited in "Britain could slash environmental and safety standards 'a very long way' after Brexit, Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg says", The Independent (6 December 2016)

2017

 * I am a late convert to social media and it's turned out to be great fun
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg announces baby Sixtus BBC News (5 July 2017).


 * It (the European Court of Justice) cannot be our senior court for a day after we leave the EU
 * No role for EU court after Brexit says Rees-Mogg BBC News (1 August 2017).


 * Once we have left and we have control, there is a political argument about what levels of immigration we should have... that is really going to be a challenge and an issue for the competence of the Home Office. It is not so much a question of Brexit. It is Brexit which makes it possible, it is then administrative efficiency that will make it happen.
 * No role for EU court after Brexit says Rees-Mogg BBC News (1 August 2017).


 * Life is sacrosanct and begins at the point of conception,
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg 'completely opposed' to abortion BBC News (6 September 2017).


 * I am a Catholic and I take the teachings of the Catholic Church seriously,
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg 'completely opposed' to abortion BBC News (6 September 2017).


 * [The voluntary support given to food banks is] rather uplifting and shows what a compassionate country we are
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg: Food banks 'rather uplifting' BBC News (14 September 2017).


 * The transition which the EU is offering means that we're still effectively in the European Union for the following two years,
 * Brexit: UK must not be EU 'colony' after Brexit BBC News (16 December 2017).

2018

 * We need to be free to do deals with the rest of the world. We must be out of the protectionist common external tariff which mainly protects inefficient EU industries at the cost to British consumers.
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg says Treasury 'fiddling figures' on Brexit BBC News (3 February 2018).


 * How you police your border is a decision for a sovereign state
 * Brexit: 'Only phantom government wants hard border' BBC News (10 May 2018)


 * The Remainers are fighting their last rear-guard action to try and stop Brexit
 * UK needs Brexit 'safe harbour' - David Miliband BBC News (14 May 2018).


 * [Accepting EU trade rules and regulations would be] the worst option [for Brexit]. It's hard to think of a worse idea.
 * Brexit 'worst option' warning for May on customs BBC News (4 July 2018).


 * Leaving on a world trade deal is a perfectly sensible thing to do but I think we can do better
 * Boris Johnson says May's Brexit plan 'worse than status quo' BBC News (11 September 2018).


 * I think the idea of a second referendum is perfectly ridiculous.
 * Interviewed on LBC radio having got the result he wanted (1 October 2018).


 * No Conservative would do anything to harm the union and that crucially includes Northern Ireland.
 * Jacob Rees-Mogg: Divide in customs post-Brexit 'impossible' BBC News (1 October 2018).


 * What we are seeing from this government is a deliberate decision not to deliver a proper Brexit
 * Ditch May now or she will lead us into 2022 election, Rees-Mogg tells Tories BBC News (20 November 2018).

2019

 * Everybody wants a deal; the prime minister wants a deal, the EU wants a deal and the Irish wants a deal,
 * Rees-Mogg says reformed Brexit deal could win over critics BBC News (23 January 2019).


 * My suspicion is that any delay to Brexit is a plot to stop Brexit. This would be the most grievous error that politicians could commit.
 * Theresa May offers MPs Brexit delay vote BBC News (26 February 2019).


 * I have always thought that no deal is better than Mrs May's deal, but Mrs May's deal is better than not leaving at all.
 * Brexit options 'narrowing', says health secretary BBC News (26 March 2019).


 * I want us to leave the European Union
 * European elections 2019: Rees-Mogg backs Conservative candidate BBC News (9 May 2019).


 * It is a grave error to try and use legal process to settle political questions,
 * Brexit: Boris Johnson ordered to appear in court over £350m claim BBC News (29 May 2019).


 * The issue at hand is whether it was right to use the gross or net level of our contribution to the European Union - that is a matter of free speech and the democratic process.
 * Brexit: Boris Johnson ordered to appear in court over £350m claim BBC News (29 May 2019).


 * The candyfloss of outrage we've had over the last 24 hours, which I think is almost entirely confected, is from people who never wanted to leave the European Union
 * Brexit: Next week 'only opportunity' to act on no deal BBC News (29 August 2019).

2020

 * And instead of this endless carping, saying it's difficult to get them, we should actually celebrate this phenomenal success of the British nation in getting up to a quarter of a million tests of a disease that nobody knew about until earlier in the year.
 * "Jacob Rees-Mogg attacks 'endless carping' about Covid testing shortages", The Guardian (17 September 2020)


 * I think it is a real scandal that UNICEF should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived, countries of the world where people are starving, where there are famines and where there are civil wars. And they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, £25,000 to one council. It is a political stunt of the lowest order.
 * "Jacob Rees-Mogg under fire for dismissing Unicef's UK grants as stunt", The Guardian (17 December 2020)

2021

 * The key is that we have our fish back: they are now British fish, and they are better and happier fish for it.
 * "Business of the House" Hansard, HoC, Vol. 687 (14 January 2021).
 * In response to a question in the House of Commons about the fishing industry losing money due to "Brexit red tape" said by the questioner to have been imposed by the government. Tommy Sheppard of the SNP was requesting a debate on the issue.

2023

 * I think you're being very rude to marsupials ... I think it makes kangaroo courts look respectable [On The World at One (BBC Radio 4)]
 * Boris is doing very well against the marsupials. [Tweet during the hearing]
 * "Johnson distances himself from 'kangaroo court' claims made by allies" Evening Standard (22 March 2023)
 * Responses to Boris Johnson's appearance at the Privileges Committee investigation into Boris Johnson of the House of Commons on 22 March. The committee was investigating allegations the former prime minister had misled the Commons over the gathering at 10 Downing Street collectively known as Partygate.


 * [T]he privileges committee is not even a proper legal set up. It has a gossamer of constitutional propriety thrown over it, but it is in fact a political committee against Boris Johnson.
 * On GB News (30 March 2023) reproduced in a privileges committee report on other parliamentarian's conduct during their investigation into Boris Johnson, as cited in "The remarks that got these Johnson allies in hot water with the Partygate committee" ITV News (29 June 2023). Rees-Mogg, six other Conservative MPs and a peer were accused of putting "improper pressure" on the committee's MPs.

We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.
 * Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them – as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.
 * From a speech (15 May 2023) at the National Conservatism conference in London, cited in "Voter ID is 'gerrymandering' which backfired on Tories, says Rees-Mogg" The Independent (15 May 2023).
 * The Elections Act 2022 made the photo identification compulsory for in-person voting.

Let other countries catch up and let us catch their breath. Let us move away from an ideological view of net zero and work with the environment in a way that is affordable.
 * I thought Uxbridge was a fundamentally important result for us. It shows that if you are on the side of voters and doing things to make their lives better, rather than worse, then lo and behold people will actually vote for you.
 * Comments on GB News (24 July 2023), as cited in "Rishi Sunak signals he could abandon green policies that cost consumers", The Guardian (24 July 2023)
 * The advocacy of Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) by London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan, and its imminent extension to outer London boroughs, was believed to have helped the Conservative Party to narrowly retain Boris Johnson's former seat in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election held on 20 July 2023. The party lost two other by-elections in seats it was defending on the same day with a large swing against them. In the press, prime minister Rishi Sunak was reported as being open to a rethink on his government's Net zero policies at the time.


 * I've done my bit by having six children, so now you do yours.
 * On GB News (27 July 2023), as cited by Kenan Malik in "Conservative calls for women to have more babies hide pernicious motives", The Observer (6 August 2023)


 * I want cheaper food. I want hormone-injected beef from Australia. I've eaten beef in Australia, it's delicious. There's nothing wrong with it.
 * Rally for Growth event at the Conservative Party conference, as cited in "Politics Hub: Tory conference latest: 'Rishi reset' derailed by HS2 - as mayor makes direct appeal to Sunak", Sky News (see 13:18, 2 October 2023)

2024–present

 * The answer lies in reuniting the Right. What we need is a big, open and comprehensive offer to those in Reform.
 * With the help of Nigel Farage in a Conservative government, as a Conservative minister, with Boris Johnson probably returning as foreign secretary and welcoming the likes of Ben Habib and Richard Tice into our party, as well as pursuing genuinely conservative policies, winning the next election suddenly becomes within reach.
 * On his GB News programme (14 May 2024), as cited in "Give Farage the chance to be a Tory, Rees-Mogg tells Sunak", The Telegraph (15 May 2024)

Quotes about Rees-Mogg

 * In alphabetical order by author or publication


 * Recall that Rees-Mogg likes to pose as a custodian of our unwritten constitution. In fact, he is a vandal in pinstripes, ready to undermine public trust in the very parliamentary democracy he pretends to cherish.
 * Jonathan Freedland "Why was Boris Johnson cast into the wilderness this week? Because a populist without a tribe is nothing" The Guardian (24 March 2023)


 * [T]he Honourable Member for the 18th Century.
 * Adam Lusher "Saviour of the Tory party or 'reactionary poison'? Will Jacob Rees-Mogg run for Tory leader, and what would he do as PM?" The Independent (13 August 2017).


 * His manners are perfumed, but his opinions are poison. Rees-Mogg is quite simply an unfailing, unbending, unrelenting reactionary.
 * Matthew Parris "Artful Rees-Mogg is anything but a joke", The Times (12 August 2017).


 * [C]harming and funny, kind, mad and totally himself.
 * Jess Phillips quoted by Rachel Cooke in "Jess Phillips: someone to believe in" The Observer (6 March 2016)


 * I know that within the Tory party the hard Brexiteers are compared to the leaders of the French revolution. I think Gove is Brissot, and Boris Johnson is Danton, and Rees-Mogg is compared to Robespierre. We should not forget that the efforts of these men were not appreciated by the common man they claimed to represent – because they all ended up on the guillotine. So that’s important to remind [them].
 * Guy Verhofstadt, Brexit: Guy Verhofstadt suggests Leave campaigners could ‘end up on the guillotine’


 * In 1997 he was selected to contest Central Fife, a gritty former mining region and the last place in the UK to elect a Communist MP. As he went from door to door, it emerged that the elderly lady accompanying him was his nanny. But rumours that he took the Bentley are nothing short of scurrilous. "Of course I took nanny!" he cries. "She’s one of the family – and I needed all the support I could get. But I didn’t drive the Bentley – I couldn’t have afforded the petrol – so it was the Merc."
 * Judith Woods "'I will never be a phoney man of the people’" The Telegraph (18 June 2013).