Jacob Rees-Mogg sits at a mahogany table in his office drinking black coffee from a Spode cup. Across from him sit three aides — laptops out and ears pricked. These days, the Moggster comes with an entourage, and their determination to be present sometimes surprises him. ‘I kept on saying to them on Sunday that they didn’t need to come to the thing in the evening but I think they’re worried about me saying the wrong thing!’
They’d have had good reason to worry. Since his election in 2010, Rees-Mogg has been one of the most quotably outspoken Tory MPs: now he is Leader of the House of Commons, his words carry more weight. He has found himself at the centre of a prorogation row involving the Queen and been scolded for reclining on the House of Commons green benches during debates. His near-horizontal slouch was reprinted on the front pages, seized on by those who thought it embodied governmental arrogance (or, as one poster put it, ‘lying Tories’).
He now lists it as his biggest regret. ‘I think it was a mistake to lie down in the Chamber because it was a trivial distraction from serious events.’ The pose itself, he says, is defensible (‘It is very traditional to sit like that’) but ‘one doesn’t want unimportant things to override the great things that this government is doing. So now I’m sitting bolt upright.’ As well he might, with the future of his party, government and country at stake.
Overall Rees-Mogg is enjoying his new view. ‘From the back benches you can throw rocks into the pool and sometimes the rocks create a bit of a wave and sometimes they just go plop.’ he explains.
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