James Delingpole
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The Mogg, however, did not flinch. Patiently, lucidly, authoritatively he set out the terms of the issue: in 2010, the Tories had inherited from Labour a £150 billion deficit, which meant that they had no choice but to make decisions which were ‘difficult and unpopular’. There are, he went on to explain, only three ways of funding such a pay increase: to raise taxes, to borrow more or to reallocate from the current budget.
At which point you might have expected the audience’s eyes to be glazing over. Not a bit of it. Judging by their applause and cheers they were elated that, perhaps for the first time in Question Time’s recent history, a politician on the panel was prepared to talk to them straight, credit them with a degree of intelligence, and forebear from the usual virtue-signalling platitudes.
During and after the programme the internet went mad for The Mogg. What had surely been conceived as a trap — the almost comically old-fashioned Tory MP from rural Somerset appearing with four left-leaning Remainers on a panel before the doughty burghers of Burton on Trent, a day after the birth of his sixth child Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher — instead turned into yet another triumph for the outsider whose rise now looks as unstoppable as that of his ideological antithesis Jeremy Corbyn.
In the last few weeks, the odds on Jacob Rees-Mogg becoming the next Conservative leader have been slashed from 50 to 1 to 10 to 1 — putting him ahead of Ruth Davidson, Sajid Javid and Michael Gove. And while it’s true that in the upper echelons of the party they’re still talking of it as a big beasts’ battle between David Davis, Philip Hammond, Boris Johnson and Amber Rudd, out among the Tory grassroots there is a great deal more appetite for the one candidate on offer who still thinks and talks like an actual conservative.
I’d vote for him like a shot. And what I find encouraging is that the main, all-too-predictable charge being laid against him by his critics — that he’s too posh — just isn’t having much effect. These comments from social media give you a flavour: ‘Poshness no barrier to working class affection. Being humble, unaffected & sincere goes down well’; ‘I’m working class & this is so true for me #just saying’; ‘Mr Rees-Mogg the phone directory, his voice is sublime’; ‘The current rabble give me no hope… I want to feel we’re in good hands & I get that with JRM.’
Rees-Mogg’s appeal to old-school Tories is obvious. He believes unashamedly in the kind of honest-to-goodness conservatism — minimal state interference, free enterprise, personal liberty within a framework of tradition, self-discipline and family values, low taxes — that the party’s upper echelons have scarcely dared advocate since the Thatcher era. His no-nonsense attitude to the EU goes down well with Ukippers too. ‘You are either in the European Union or you leave it,’ he said on Question Time, wearing the pained expression of a man pointing out something so agonisingly obvious that he’s amazed even his thicko fellow panellists can’t get it. It won him whoops of delight from the audience.
What’s more surprising, perhaps, is the extent of his appeal among those teens and millennials who might be expected to prefer Corbyn. Yes, it’s probably true that as with Boris, they find him so funny and charming they’re prepared to overlook the fact that he belongs to the hated Tories. But what I think they warm to even more is his extraordinary authenticity.
In youth parlance, Rees-Mogg is ‘based’. He’s quick on his feet, comfortable in his skin, knows his own mind and is beholden to no man. Having made his fortune as a value investor in emerging markets before becoming an MP, he is in the unusual position of being able to say what exactly he thinks — and from a position of knowledge and experience. He’s also funny, self-deprecating, charming, looks great in a bespoke double-breasted suit and even better in the copious memes on social media celebrating his wit, wisdom and magnificence. Moggmentum, that’s what they’re calling it. If there’s any justice, it will take him all the way…
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