Jacob Rees-Mogg threatens to face as MP once more – ‘I’m considering very strongly’
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has threatened to stand again at the next General Election in an attempt to win back his seat.
The ex-Tory MP, who lost the traditionally safe Conservative seat of North East Somerset last month, said he was “very strongly” thinking about standing again in 2029. The former Cabinet Minister, who was infamously pictured slouching on the green benches in the Commons during a Brexit debate said he “loved” being in Parliament.
Sir Jacob told an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe he expected to lose, and had even written to his children, who were at boarding school, to warn them. He told interviewer Matt Forde: “I am not absolutely certain but I love politics and I love being in the Parliament. So I am thinking very strongly about standing again.” He said he knew his party could not “overcome a 20% deficit in the opinion polls”, adding: “I wrote to my children at boarding school before the election to say ‘look I will probably lose’.
“I tried my best to warn them that I was going to lose my seat. We governed badly, we hadn’t done what we told people we would do. We put up taxes when we said that we wouldn’t, we hadn’t dealt with migration and we hadn’t governed well. I can’t pretend we didn’t deserve it.”
Sir Jacob, who lost his seat to Labour’s Dan Norris, voiced his fury after his 16-year-old son received “fundamentally nasty” hate mail after his election defeat. He said: “To write to a 16-year-old is just loathsome.”
He went on: “It is not my son’s fault that I have the political views that I do and it is cowardly [to write to him]. If you don’t agree with me then you should get in touch with me – put your name on the bottom of it.” The former cabinet member, who served under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, admitted that the Tories deserved to lose.
He said: “We governed badly, we hadn’t done what we told people we would do. We put up taxes when we said that we wouldn’t, we hadn’t dealt with migration and we hadn’t governed well. I can’t pretend we didn’t deserve it.”
His remarks came as a poll of Tory members showed ex-Home Secretary James Cleverly leading his rivals in the contest to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition. He was backed by 26% of party members, The Times reports. Dame Priti Patel was behind him on 20%.
Languishing behind them were Kemi Badenoch on 14%, Tom Tugendhat on 11%, Robert Jenrick on 10% and Mel Stride on 4%.
