WITH the House of Commons in recess and Conservative MPs supping Pimms with abandon, I don’t doubt that much of the conversation in the Shires revolves around the “when” and most especially the “who” should replace the embarrassingly lame Theresa May as party leader.
News that Ruth Davidson is being bandied around as a serious contender, despite not even being an MP, is perhaps an indication that many Tories believe it’s time for a new direction. Perhaps, however, the smart money should be on the true Tory radical waiting in the wings, one that represents change in a completely different way: Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The MP for North East Somerset was all over the media at the weekend after letting slip – as one does - his leadership ambitions during a lunch with right-wing US academic Professor Ted Malloch, who used the opportunity to urge the party to dump “weak” Mrs May in favour of the “lion” that is Mr Rees-Mogg.
At first glance all this might seem like classic silly season tittle tattle; Mr Rees-Mogg does, after all, appear to revel in his persona as the cartoonish PG Wodehouse-esque throwback Old Etonian, the ultra-posh “young fogey” (he’s only 48!) who lives in a country pile with his aristocratic wife, and recently named his son Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher. (One of the wee mite’s brothers is called Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam.)
Courted as a minor celebrity with a clutch of successful Have I Got News For You appearances under his belt, Mr Rees-Mogg is also a hugely popular figure on social media, both in terms of his own accounts and the increasing number of fan pages. It’s Boris all over again, I hear you cry.
But scratch the surface and a rather different picture emerges, of a serious and genuine politician, an articulate and skilled communicator who has more in common with Jeremy Corbyn than the likes of David Cameron. If the key concept in modern politics is authenticity, then Mr Rees-Mogg, like the Labour leader, has it in spades. This is not a man who feels the need to soften his impossibly cut-glass accent or pretend to be down with the kids, and that, allied with his hardline stance on Brexit, is making him increasingly popular with grassroots Tories.
Where Mr Cameron and Mrs May - not to mention the likes of Tony Blair and Nick Clegg - are seen by the public as empty PR constructs, the “honourable member for the eighteenth century” as Mr Rees-Mogg has been nicknamed, is a straight-talking and unapologetic ideologue, both big and small “c” Conservative to the core, genuinely radical in his unashamed wish to go take Britain back to the past.
As a political outlook, Mogg-ism, as we may well one day call it, would be unlikely to be popular with many Scots, myself included. It’s a socially and morally as well as politically conservative ideology that makes Thatcherism look progressive. In the recent past, Mr Rees-Mogg has consistently voted to reduce the benefits paid to the most vulnerable in society, including the disabled and the young unemployed, while backing tax cuts for the richest. He has also voted against gay marriage and a number of other laws that promote equality and human rights, and believes the monarchy is the “greatest institution in our land”.
As for Brexit, the Rees-Mogg approach is about as hardcore as it is possible to get. He openly talks of Britain leaving the European Union without a trade deal and, like a more polite version of Nigel Farage, obsesses over sovereignty. Little England? Definitely. Defiantly.
Despite all this - actually, because of all this - I’d take him as PM over Mrs May or Mr Cameron any day of the week. At least he has a clear and honest vision of Britain and he’s prepared to go out and own it. Mr Rees-Mogg stands for many things I do not believe in, but he is not a hypocrite or a charlatan. A Prime Minister’s Questions with Jacob Rees-Mogg and Jeremy Corbyn would at least offer voters real choice.
The Moggster is also, by all accounts, unafraid to consort with and listen to those who are his political opponents, as his genuine admiration for and friendship with SNP firebrand MP Mhairi Black attests.
Speaking of the SNP, I can’t help but think a Rees-Mogg premiership would be a gift for Nicola Sturgeon and her party, providing a clear and honest uber right-wing agenda to stand against, inspiring a new offer on independence that a majority of Scots may be very relieved indeed to accept. Indeed, Mr Rees-Mogg might even be happy to let Scotland go if it makes Brexit easier and helps secures his future position. Ms Black would make the ideal chief independence negotiator.
If the prospect of Mr Rees-Mogg making it to Downing Street inspired a big swing to Labour in England, meanwhile, this would also surely be better for both Scotland and the rest of the UK, than the current Tory chaos that damages us all.
With this in mind, my advice to Tory MPs mulling over their party’s future this summer is simple: back Rees-Mogg for leader.
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