Jacob Rees-Mogg has said he would be “delighted” for his back garden to be fracked, as he risked deepening divisions within the Conservative party by deriding those who oppose the controversial practice as “socialists”.
The business secretary was bullish about restarting fracking in England after a nearly three-year moratorium, saying the current limit of magnitude 0.5 to avoid mini-earthquakes being caused was “ridiculously low”.
Companies that want to drill a new fracking well could “go around, door to door, as politicians do at elections and ask people if they would consent”, Rees-Mogg suggested.
“Then they have to go around to an identifiable community and if they get 50% plus one in favour then they should be able to go ahead,” he told the Chopper’s Politics fringe event hosted by the Telegraph at the Conservative conference in Birmingham.
So far, the government has only said shale gas extraction firms will need “community consent” to start drilling, but refused to provide any further details.
Liz Truss faced an embarrassing grilling by BBC Lancashire as part of last week’s round of local radio interviews. When pressed to elaborate on how communities would be consulted, the prime minister was unable to do so and was told “it sounds like you don’t know”.
Rees-Mogg said the current seismic limit for fracking was too low and he would soon announce “a more realistic figure”.
Asked if he would allow digging for shale gas in his back garden, the MP for North East Somerset, whose constituency home is the Grade II listed Gournay Court, said enthusiastically: “Yes, of course I would, I would be delighted to. If we do what I am suggesting on shale gas, you will be doing a public service by having it in your back garden. But you will also get paid for it. So both the country wins, and you win.
“Oh, and even better, the environment wins because it’s lower carbon emissions. Bingo. So who doesn’t like it? The socialists and Caroline Lucas. Well, that makes my heart bleed.”
Rees-Mogg added those areas that produce shale gas should get royalties.
The business secretary also announced that a prototype nuclear fusion power plant, possibly the first in the world, would be built in Nottinghamshire by 2040, replacing a coal-fired power station in the area.
Many Tory MPs have voiced their opposition to fracking, some publicly since the announcement of the return of fracking and others before they became ministers – meaning they are prevented from speaking out.
Rees-Mogg also dismissed the suggestion of former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries that for Truss to junk many policies of the previous government, she may need to call a general election.
“There is no constitutional requirement for a new election,” he said, noting that the deadline was January 2025 – adding with a smile: “There’s nothing like a good winter election.”
• This article was amended on 4 October 2022. Jacob Rees-Mogg is MP for North East Somerset, not North Somerset as an earlier version said. Liam Fox is the MP for that constituency.
