JACOB Rees-Mogg has sparked outrage after dismissing the “general grumpiness” of the SNP after he was grilled on the cost of the Government’s new energy bill plans.
He was pressed by Stephen Flynn, the party’s business spokesperson, on how much the plans, which will see the wholesale price of energy capped to meet Liz Truss’s promise the average household would not pay more than £2500 for utilities.
Jacob Rees-Mogg makes a bizarre quip about PG Wodehouse and the 'general grumpiness' of the SNP in response to a question about the cost of Tory energy bill plans pic.twitter.com/JxD5Ty192Y
— Hamish Morrison (@HMorrison97) September 22, 2022
Flynn also asked the Energy Secretary whether multi-billion pound companies such as Amazon would benefit from “a scheme that’s going to built on the back of public-sector borrowing”.
The Government has estimated previously that the cost of the plan could be £100 billion while others have raised concerns the true cost could be as high as £250bn, reports the Financial Times.
And Flynn mocked the minister after a photograph of him filming an announcement next to a boarded up shop beside piles of uncollected rubbish.
So there will be no Commons announcement from Jacob Rees Mogg tomorrow about the energy bill help for business - just a Beis press release at 9am. And ... perhaps ... an online video? This was spotted being filmed earlier today in Westminster. What a lot of people involved. pic.twitter.com/xrxrtlYF8g
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) September 20, 2022
He said: “Isn’t it great to see the Secretary of State in this House rather than standing in the street filming a statement to the public surrounded by boarded-up shops and rubbish?”
Flynn also demanded to know if Rees-Mogg could explain to “energy-rich Scotland” why “Westminster has failed us so terribly badly”.
Rees-Mogg responded: “What was it PG Wodehouse said about it being not too difficult to discern the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine?
“As so often, the SNP comes here on Thursday mornings with a grievance and it’s rather like old times isn’t it…?
“When I’d have an hour on Thursday mornings to discourse with the Scottish nationalists about their general grumpiness. And that is one of the constants of British politics.”
He added: “He refers to rubbish in the streets of Westminster and I would point out to him that as soon as an administration turns from Conservative to socialist the rubbish piles up in the streets, as I think it’s also been doing with the SNP in Edinburgh.”
The Conservatives supported Labour to take control of Edinburgh council earlier this year.
Met with protestations from the SNP benches, Mr Rees-Mogg continued, saying “this scheme is fair to taxpayers”, adding there would be a review in three months “to ensure the support goes to those people who need it most”.
