The Ukraine crisis has allowed the Tories to 'get away' from Partygate, Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted today.
He described the scandal as “fundamentally trivial” and “fluff” - saying the “seriousness” of Vladimir Putin ’s invasion made it look like “nonsense”, the Independent reported.
It comes as Scotland Yard bolstered its Partygate squad probing lockdown-busting No10 bashes as the investigation intensifies.
The Metropolitan Police’s Special Enquiry Team originally had eight senior officers.
But today it was reported it has taken on more staff.
The team had “now got bigger”, a staffer told the Daily Mail.
Officers are still issuing questionnaires and trawling through more than 500 documents and cross-referencing accounts with more than 300 CCTV images.
Boris Johnson last month became the first PM to effectively be quizzed under caution when he completed his questionnaire.
The Met is investigating allegations of 12 events in breach of coronavirus rules – six of which Mr Johnson is reported to have attended.
Speaking at a Q&A with the Conservative Home website, according to the Independent, Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Ukraine crisis was “a reminder that the world is serious, and that there are serious things to be discussed and serious and difficult decisions for politicians to take, whether this is about reopening and having new licences for oil wells in the North Sea, or whether it is about getting away from the wokery that has beset huge sections of society”.
He went on: “All that nonsense is shown up for the trivial nature of it, and that we are now looking at serious difficult decisions that have to be made.
“I would say the same about Partygate. All of that is shown up for the disproportionate fluff of politics that it was, rather than something of fundamental seriousness about the safety of the world and about the established global order.”
He added: "When we look back in 36 years at Partygate, people will think `What were they on about? They were moving from Covid to Russia and Ukraine, yet they were distracted by whether or not the PM spent five minutes in his own garden. It’s fundamentally trivial."
He went on to demand the use of the word “chairman” rather than the ‘woke’ “chairperson”, and suggested referring to Beijing rather than Peking amounted to “sucking up to a totalitarian regime.”
Tory Chairman Oliver Dowden later distanced himself from Mr Rees-Mogg's comments, saying Partygate should be "taken seriously."
He said: "I've always felt that it's incumbent on politicians who set the rules to abide by the rules, so I think any allegations that politicians have not done so should be taken seriously.
"However I would say that both there is this ongoing police investigation, we've had the interim Sue Gray report and the PM has similarly expressed remorse at how these kind of events could have happened, and he's right to do so, so I don't dismiss that, no."
Meanwhile, Lord Cruddas, a major Conservative Party donor, said the scandal had been "blown out of proportion quite frankly".
He told LBC Radio: "I support Boris, I think he's done a brilliant job. He delivered Brexit, he delivered the vaccine programme. I like to look on the positives and not on the negatives.
"I back Boris and guess what, I sent the party £250,000 six weeks ago right at the height of partygate to support the party and to support Boris. I think we should be grateful to Boris, the way he brought the vaccines into this country and the way he delivered Brexit, and I'm behind him all the way"
At a fringe event at Conservative Spring Conference in Blackpool, Mr Rees-Mogg said the ukraine -crisis>Ukraine crisis meant politics was “recalibrated with a new seriousness”.
Later, Mr Rees-Mogg called for the literal public burning of “redundant” laws left over from EU regulations.
The newly-minted minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency, told party faithful at Tory Spring Conference in Blackpool, he would back a public bonfire of laws.
The crowd-pleasing suggestion came as Mr Rees-Mogg claimed there were almost 1,500 EU regulations remaining in UK law.
Mr Rees-Mogg promised a bill to remove “redundant, obsolete and cumbersome laws” in the next Parliamentary session.
And he said he would bring forward a bill to scrap procurement rules for billions of pounds worth of government contracts.
Turning to his plan to theatrically set fire to legislation, he told the Conference hall: “I rather think we should take inspiration from the Restoration.
“It took a year to do this, but in 1661, the public executioner, I think in Old Palace Yard, took all the illegitimate acts of Cromwell and burned them publicly.
“How about that for the rules of the European Union?”
Responding to an approving cheer from the audience, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “I take it that there would be a lot of applications for the post of public executioner.”
