While Mhairi Black has made no secret of her dislike for the Tories, she has at least found words of praise for one Conservative MP. Speaking earlier this year, the SNP MP spoke of her admiration for Jacob Rees-Mogg:
‘I could sit and listen to him all day, I disagree with him 99.9 per cent of the time, and that wee percent is just because he’s got good manners. But I love listening to him, his knowledge is incredible, and he’s so polite.’
Now Rees-Mogg has returned the favour. At last night’s annual Freedom Association’s Christmas Quiz at the Barley Mow, Rees-Mogg took time out of his quizmaster duties to wax lyrical about the baby of the house:
‘Mhairi Black is a really impressive SNP lady with very clear views. She’s an incredible orator and I think she is a real asset to the House of Commons.’
Alas his words failed to prove all that popular with the crowd, as one man shouted that Black wanted to leave the Commons. This prompted the Tory MP to come to the Black’s party’s defence. Rees-Mogg says it is the SNP — rather than Labour — who are now the real opposition party in the Commons, pointing to the fact they actually take Parliament seriously:
‘Well she does, but the SNP actually make a huge contribution to the Commons, they are the real opposition at the moment. They take the House of Commons very seriously, they are always there, they participate in debates and they take the Commons more seriously than a lot of MPs, so I’m becoming rather pro the SNP.’
While the words will no doubt go down well with the SNP who have regularly claimed themselves to be the real opposition, Rees-Mogg did hastily add a disclaimer that for all his praise, he has no plans to defect to the Scottish party. Should he change his mind though, he could set up a Southern outlet of the SNP with fellow Englishman Stan Collymore, who joined the party last week as a result of the Syria vote on airstrikes.
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