A PROTESTER who interrupted a speech by Jacob Rees-Mogg to warn about the dangers of “fascism” was dragged off stage.
The incident occurred during the National Conservatism Conference in London on Monday, during the former business secretary’s keynote address.
Extinction Rebellion has said the man, who intervened seconds into Rees-Mogg's speech, was a man is a member of the group.
A video posted by the eco-protesters shows the protester taking to the stage and leaning into the microphone will the MP is speaking.
He said: "Ladies and gentlemen, you all look very nice people and I'm sure you are fantastically nice people but I would like to draw your attention to a few characteristics of fascism..."
At this point, Rees-Mogg intervened and the audience began to jeer while security guards removed him from the stage.
One audience member can be heard shouting: "Get back to work."
After regaining the microphone, Rees-Mogg said: "Well there we go, our jolly good fellow has had to leave but we believe... we believe in freedom of speech, so he can have his national looney's conference next week and he can see how many people he gets to come along."
Jacob Rees-Mogg interrupted at NatCon by a protester who grabbed the microphone to warn about the “characteristics of fascism” JRM; “He can have his national loony convention next week” pic.twitter.com/L2SvuB4gCq
— Dominic Penna (@DominicPenna) May 15, 2023
Peter Walker, a Guardian journalist covering the event, said: "Jacob Rees Mogg begins his speech and is immediately – and very politely – interrupted by a man who gets on stage, leans over onto the mic, and begins to talk about 'fascism'. He is belatedly bundled off."
Another reporter at the scene said: "A very polite protester interrupts Jacob Rees-Mogg’s speech to talk about the dangers of fascism at the National Conservatism Conference. Dragged off, obviously."
Walker said that attendees had earlier in the morning listened to a "freewheeling" speech from the American-Israeli philosopher Yoram Hazony, who is one of the event's organisers.
He added: "Hazony is now openly urging the audience to marry young, have 'lots' of children and encourage them to be 'businessmen'.
"He’s also in favour of a return to national service."
Hazony is also the chair of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a US think tank whose stated aim is to promote "the principles of national conservatism in Western and other democratic countries".
Later in his speech, Rees-Mogg took aim at the Government's voter ID law, calling it an attempt at "gerrymandering".
He said: "Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.
“We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.”
