The MP opens up on the Conservatives’ recent turbulent past and says the new PM must take control of net zero, tax and immigration
It was only a few weeks ago that Jacob Rees-Mogg got around to moving into his ministerial office in the Commons, overlooking Parliament Square. Now, however, he has begun the process of packing up his belongings once again and removing his carefully curated artwork from the walls, having become a backbencher again – along with Liz Truss.
In his first interview since Ms Truss’s departure last week, the MP for North East Somerset, one of the central figures in her short regime, visibly relishes being free to speak with the candour of a backbencher, after more than three years as a minister bound by collective responsibility.
He exercises his new freedom by taking aim at institutions including the Bank of England for being “too slow” to raise interest rates, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for being “invariably wrong” and Whitehall for wasting money and failing to take an “intelligent” approach to net zero. He also sounds warnings over what he sees as an imperative to repeal EU laws and control migration in order to deliver on the result of the Brexit referendum and boost growth.
Last week, Rees-Mogg, 53, who was first appointed to the Cabinet by Boris Johnson in July 2019, demonstrated his fondness for the backbenches when he returned to the Commons chamber within hours of resigning as Business Secretary. While his wife, Helena, 45, and six children are looking forward to spending more time with him, the family will wait to be reunited “because they’re all in Somerset, because it’s half-term. So they’re all whooping it up in Somerset and I’m stuck in the great smoke.”