Rees-Mogg calls on Sunak to make Farage a government minister
https://www.ft.com/content/0f85a767-e007-449f-950f-9b61674ccf50
by 1-randomonium
Rees-Mogg calls on Sunak to make Farage a government minister
https://www.ft.com/content/0f85a767-e007-449f-950f-9b61674ccf50
by 1-randomonium
30 comments
(Article)
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Rishi Sunak should make Nigel Farage a Tory minister and allow other senior Reform UK politicians to stand as Conservative candidates at the general election, a former cabinet minister has urged.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a senior right-wing MP and former business secretary, issued the radical proposal on Tuesday, insisting that uniting Britain’s right was the Tories’ “only chance of climbing this electoral mountain” lying ahead.
The Conservative party is trailing Labour by about 20 points in opinion polls and suffered crushing losses in local elections earlier this month.
Speaking on his own GB News programme, Rees-Mogg argued that the prime minister could close that gap with a “big, open and comprehensive offer to those in Reform”, in a move designed to consolidate the right-wing voting bloc in the UK.
Sunak “should offer candidate selection to senior members of the Reform party”, including its honorary president Farage, its leader Richard Tice and its deputy leader Ben Habib, Rees-Mogg said.
He went further, calling on the prime minister to enlist the “help of Nigel Farage in a Conservative government as a Conservative minister, with Boris Johnson probably returning as foreign secretary . . . as well as pursuing genuinely Conservative policies”. Such moves would put a Tory victory in the general election, expected later this year, “within reach”, Rees-Mogg said.
He highlighted a survey published by The Sun earlier this week which indicated that Reform would reach 16 per cent in the polls if Farage, a high-profile champion of Brexit, made a political comeback to the forefront of the party. At present, Farage is a fellow broadcaster on GB News, away from frontline politics.
The same poll put the Tories on 21 per cent. “When putting these percentages together, it gets us to 37 per cent to Labour’s 41 [per cent],” Rees-Mogg said. He acknowledged that his argument was an oversimplified strategy, but insisted it would send “a clear message to the electorate of unity of purpose” among the British right.
The Tory MP pointed out that, in 2010, his party had been willing to enter a coalition with the Liberal Democrats who were “hardly our soulmates”, while, in contrast, “most members of Reform are not a million miles away from most Conservative voters and members politically”.
The Lib Dems seized on his remarks, declaring that Sunak should suspend the whip from Rees-Mogg. Daisy Cooper, the party’s deputy leader, said the Tory party was a “shambolic mess”, adding that its MPs were in “open revolt”.
“If the prime minister had any bottle he would suspend the whip from Rees-Mogg and rule out Nigel Farage being allowed into the Conservative party,” she said.
Rees-Mogg’s intervention provoked a derisive response from some other Tories. One centrist labelled it “moronic” and another former minister called it “utterly thick”.
However, some MPs on the Conservative right have indicated they would support Farage coming back to the fold. Last week Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister, told LBC: “I would not oppose Nigel Farage coming back into the party.”
In the past Rees-Mogg called for an electoral pact between the Tories and Ukip, the pro-Brexit party that Farage previously led.
The Conservative party was contacted for comment.
Haha. I knew about Mogg’s recent navel-gazing and hand-wringing over how the Tories had ‘lost their way’ but to think his ‘solution’ was as shallow as this.
Regressive Mogg just thinking of himself and his position, as usual. The thought of a Conservative/Reform coalition quite honestly horrifies me. It’d be like having a stupid version of Trump in power.
Put him in charge of farming or fisheries.
He’s got a wax jacket .
Peak clown show.
Make Nigel leader and the tories would piss the election.
Trouble with the current Tory party is they aren’t in the slightest right wing
The majority of voters don’t have anyone to vote for
Look at the turnouts in the mayoral/local election s
All the parties are green socialists
There’s a paragraph in Chris Patten’s HK book about his interaction with Mogg when ‘it’ was just a wee bairn. Essentially a 1950s-style Toff in the making.
Love him or hate him, he’s not wrong. Right leaning voters have no faith in the tories, they’re losing votes to Reform. The only basis on which right leaning voters still vote Tory is to keep Labour out. Decades of mass immigration reaching record levels every year, police cuts, failure to appropriately deal with criminals, failure to deliver on literally any promises they made to people who voted for Brexit, a comedy of errors in leadership, and generally being spineless has alienated a large amount of their core voting base. These things, coupled with labour now having a more centric leader, leaves very little reason for anyone right leaning to actually vote for them.
He’s not an MP, he’s not in the House of Lords, and he’s not in the Conservative Party. Might as well make Bob from your local the Foreign Secretary.
Thoroughly insane take from Rees-Mogg as I expected. He’s not incorrect that Reform UK pose a threat to the Conservatives on the right and will split their vote, but the Tories have spent 14 years trying to appease them by shifting rightwards, and the response is just more of the same. Offering Farage a government position is…honestly insane given his inability to be elected in multiple attempts and him never having been an MP.
Mad to think an elected politician has his own TV show.
I call for Rees-Mogg to [redacted due to foul language] and the horse he rode in on
Sadly I expect a squalid deal involving a peerage for Fartrage in return for his company standing down in marginals.
It still won’t save the Tories, but it will limit their losses – and make what are left even more loony Trumpite.
Not great for when they inevitably get back in after Labour fuck it up again.
Why would you give a Russian agent a job as a government minister.
He could be Minister for Fisheries … I’m sure all those meetings he attended in Brussels on the subject, and all the votes her cast in support of British fishermen and the detailed, meticulous work he did on that subject…….oh wait….
LOOOOOOL. How has Farage wormed his way into alll this. It’s beyond me. He is loser and o hope for his voice to be completely shut out with next govt.
Having somebody like farage in government just goes to show how low the traitory party have sunk.
Please for the love of god can we have a general election so we can put an end to this farce.
He hasn’t even won an election. Yet watch Moggy say something about democracy
But he was and he did fuck all besides rattle his own fis. The twat is a grifter and I’m surprised he hasn’t tried fucking off to American again to cosy up to Trump.
> Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a senior right-wing MP and former business secretary
Business Secretary for a month. If that. In the most diasterous administration in recent history.
Anyway, it’s a bad idea from a political point of view, because the press are in a ‘noticing’ mood when it comes to the Tories and there is a lot of antisemitc and otherwise racist nastyness that Farage would bring, along with his deep rooted conspiracy theories.
So you’d lose the last remaining ‘moderates’, meanwhile the right wing of Reform will accuse Tice of selling out and flip over to UKIP or just not vote.
Give him Rees-Mogg’s job and fire Rees-Mogg for the lulz.
Then fire Farage the next day and remove all potential governmental benefits. When he objects, deport him to Germany to match his passport.
Birds of a feather and all that.
Also, Rees-Mogg had the most slapable face I have ever seen. It’s literally nature’s way of telling us to hit him.
Jesus – as if things weren’t bad enough already . The sad thing is that would be a popular choice for many in this country .
You mean that bloke who has been up for election 7 times and has failed every time to become an MP?
And there we have it. A man who failed to be elected to the commons 7 times should be a minister.
Next time they mention ‘will of the people’ they can do one.
Ah great, the cherry on top of the transformation of the conservative party into UKIP
Very much doubt Farage has any interest in taking up a government position. Its much easier to snipe from the sidelines than to actually have to be responsible for something. The moment he’s actually responsible for anything it’ll unravel for him, pronto.
The law needs to change so that ministers have to be elected representatives.
The public has not elected Nigel Farage to government, in fact he’s spent his whole career failing to become an MP
He has failed to ever win any election where he would represent people. The only elections he ever won were on a pledge to not represent his constituents.
Is Mogg still on track to lose his seat? I really hope so.
If JRM became Prime Minister, would we officially be living in a Nanny State?