North-East Somerset MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has offered up a stern defence of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, going as far as saying many of his Conservative colleagues owe their career to him. He was speaking ahead of a vote of confidence tonight in Mr Johnson which has been triggered after 54 backbenchers requested a ballot.
The vote is due to take place between 6pm and 8pm tonight (June 6) with the result expected shortly afterwards. If 180 MPs vote against the Mr Johnson, who has been heavily criticised for his handling of Partygate and the Covid pandemic among other things, then he will have to step down as PM, which in turn will set up a Conservative Party leadership contest.
Since the news was announced by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, many MPs have come out to say whether they will support Mr Johnson or not. Now Mr Rees-Mogg has confirmed he will be backing Mr Johnson.
Read more: LIVE - Boris Johnson 'no confidence' vote taking place today
Speaking to Sky News, he attempted to downplay tonight's vote and the significance of it, saying it was merely the “routine of politics”. He said: “I think you would find in all parties at all times there’s about 15% who, for whatever reason, don’t like the leader of the party.”
Mr Rees-Mogg went onto say that reaching the 54 letters mark - which is 15% of Tory MPs - is “particularly damaging, or indeed particularly surprising”. He added: “I think it’s a relatively low bar and fairly easy to get to.
“So I wouldn’t focus on a narrow particular rule, I would just look at the generality of politics that there are always people who want the top job and a lot of people who’ve been public in recent days clearly want the top job for themselves and they therefore stir things up a bit. And we will see – I hope the Prime Minister will win the vote later on today and then calm everything down.”
Addressing the booing of Mr Johnson as he arrived at a thanksgiving service for the Queen at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday (June 3), which was part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Mr Rees-Mogg said this was “muted noise” and of little importance. The Brexit Opportunities Minister told Kay Burley: “I think you over-interpret what happened. Political figures must expect this.
“Politicians who do things, politicians who achieve things, politicians who lead the country well, obviously stir up strong emotions in certain sections of the population. That is what you would expect and I think that the sort of piety that they were on the steps of St Paul’s is not really reflective of modern British society.”
He went onto accuse Sky News of turning the volume up on a clip of the booing when the channel played it back to him. He quipped: “Turning the volume up to get your readers to be too concerned about that – that was a bit miserable really.”
He went onto add: “I think that anybody who is influenced by some muted noise that rather excited a few journalists would not be showing the judgment and wisdom that you would expect of a Conservative member of Parliament.”
Mr Rees-Mogg later said that Mr Johnson should perhaps remind Tory MPs of what he has achieved during his time at Number 10. He said: “He needs to remind people of what he’s achieved, and the election victory was a very personal victory.
“There are a lot of members of Parliament who owe their seats directly to Boris Johnson and he has a mandate from the British people and that is important. We are a representative democracy, but MPs are answerable to their constituents and he got a mandate directly from them.”
Want our best stories with fewer ads and alerts when the biggest news stories drop? Download our app on iPhone or Android
