Most politicians can only dream of having the cult following that Jacob Rees-Mogg is enjoying at Conservative party conference. His events are packed out an hour before they are due to start. Cries of ‘Mogg for PM’ have been heard. And when Rees-Mogg walked into the room at a Leave means Leave rally last night, he was greeted with wild applause just for turning up. Mogg’s loyal supporters hang on his every word, but there’s one thing on which they don’t agree with their idol on: whether it’s time for Theresa May to go.
The problem for Rees-Mogg is that in firing up his followers to ‘chuck Chequers’, it’s difficult to row back when some then take the logical next step and call for the PM’s head. Rees-Mogg’s logic is simple: hate the sin but don’t hate the sinner. Chequers is bad and it needs to go, he argues, but ousting May now would only make matters worse for the Tories.
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