Wise Words

Jacob Rees-Mogg is “busy pretending that he shares an understanding with the kingdom’s numerous redundant coalminers.” …. “He says he appreciates what it’s like to live in a former mining community in a rural setting, because he hails from north Somerset, where there were collieries until the Seventies. What he does not mention is that his family were coal owners not coal miners, hence the fascination with the industry shown by his father, Lord William. Young Jacob, who claims to have joined the Tories at the age of 13 (so late?), is a City investment manager. He admits  … that his family’s involvement with coal “was not in a pit face way”.

Independent 16.02.97

Asked if it was wise to travel by Mercedes in a Labour area (Wrekin 2001) he said: “I thought I’d better not bring the Bentley”

Sunday Times 23.07.06

“Young Fogey financier” Rees-Mogg is one of “only two people (who) have access to an exclusive upstairs loo at Claridge’s”. The other is the King of Spain. An ‘insider’ said “Jacob is such a valued patron of Claridge’s that he has special access to the loo. It was out way of showing that we love having him here.”

Evening Standard 04.02.05

“I gradually realised that whatever I happened to be speaking about, the number of voters in my favour dropped as soon as I opened my mouth” – REES-MOGG

The Scotsman 11.10.01

“I do wish you wouldn’t keep going on about my nanny. If I had a valet you’d think it was perfectly normal….. If I’ve got a nanny, I’ve got a nanny. And if anybody doesn’t like it – tough!’”

Mail on Sunday 26.03.00

“On one magnificent occasion two summers ago, both maid and nanny were to be found tending to their charge in the bucolic glory of Glyndebourne, where they took turns holding an open book over Rees- Mogg’s thin and pale neck to prevent it getting burned as he entertained a party of guests to a picnic.

Was this really true? “Oh, every bit of it. I hate sitting in the sun,” he says. “So I complained to Nanny and she rellied (sic)  round!’”

Mail on Sunday 26.03.00

Rees-Mogg told the late journalist Jean Rook that he wanted to be Prime Minister at the age of 70 “when I’ve made enough money to waste some on politics”

Mail on Sunday 26.03.00

“Nanny came to Eton every week to change my sheets and bring me anything I needed.” – Rees-Mogg

The Times 26.12.93

 “Not knowing as a five year-old how other people lived I thought the leadership contest in the Tory Party were their bread and butter conversation as well.” - Rees-Mogg

BBC West Politics Show 01.10.06

“Some of my press cuttings one wouldn’t necessarily want read out at a public meeting.” – Rees-Mogg

BBC West Politics Show 01.10.06

In the run-up to the 2001 election Rees-Mogg said “he was a proud technosceptic who thought that things were much better before the internet when people kept information on cards.”

Quote from Marc-Henri Glendening’s essay in ‘A Blue Tomorrow’ collection edited by Michael Gove, Ed Vaizey, Nicholas Boles  and Iain Dale, as quoted in

Evening Standard 26.11.01

“Jacob Rees-Mogg, a portfolio manager for London-based Lloyd George Management, said that there are some real bargains to be had at the moment, and although he is tempted he is also hesitant to make a move before Wall Street is reopened.”

The weekend after the Twin Towers disaster, before Wall Street had yet reopened

Financial Times World Media Abstract 14.09.01

The love of the Common People: Rees-Mogg’s wedding

“A fleet of taxis and buses took guests from the cathedral to Bourne Park, the imposing Queen Anne mansion where Lady Juliet (Tadgell, Helena de Chair’s mother) had hired security teams to guard her priceless collection of art, including seven Stubbses and six Van Dykes. “

Mail (Richard Kay column) 14 January 2007

“Jacob’s loyal nanny, Veronica Crook, 56, who accompanied him in a vintage Bentley during his unsuccessful attempt to get elected in Fife Central, was a witness. “

Mail (Richard Kay column) 14 January 2007

IS THE affable but fogeyish Jacob ReesMogg finally embracing the 21st century?

The Old Etonian Tory candidate for North East Somerset – whose father, Lord Rees-Mogg , is a Tory peer – tied the knot to tongue-studded heiress Helena de Chair last weekend. “It was a very traditional wedding, including a Latin mass 15 pages long, ” says Hickey’s mole.

“We expected them to leave the reception in a horse-drawn carriage – but they actually left in a helicopter, Jacob sporting a panama hat!” Thankfully, nanny – who has been known to canvass votes on Jacob’s behalf – was there to wave him off.

Daily Express Hickey 16.01.07

In his address at the reception, Jacob praised his father — the former editor of the Times and a Conservative peer — as ‘the greatest living Englishman’ and, to thunderous applause, ended it with a raucous, Right-wing cry of: ‘Lefties, get out!’

Mail (Richard Kay column) 14 January 2007

In his speech at the reception, Mr Rees-Mogg praised his father.

“He said he was the greatest living Englishman,” said a guest, North East Somerset Conservative officer Margaret Brewer.

“He also said he would like to say his mother was the greatest living Englishwoman, but Margaret Thatcher was still around.”

Somerset Guardian 18.01.07

Childhood

§         Aged 12 he got into the Mail, Express and Daily Mirror when he “stood up and asked questions at a couple of shareholder meetings”

Independent 27.02.99

§         Aged 13: “I was sent out of class for wearing a Conservative Party rosette during the 1983 General Election.” – Rees-Mogg

Daily Mail 12.06.98

• “One grows up in any family thinking it’s completely normal so I always assumed everybody spent their life discussing politics….” – Rees-Mogg

BBC West Politics Show 01.10.06

• “Not knowing as a five year-old how other people lived I thought the leadership contest in the Tory Party were their bread and butter conversation as well.” – Rees-Mogg

BBC West Politics Show 01.10.06

Previous candidacies

The Wrekin – 2001

1 per cent swing to Labour in 2001, increasing a majority from 3,025 to 3,587.

Tory vote fell in 2001 compared with 1997

1997  18,218 (40.2%)

2001  15,945 (38.4%)

Fife Central – 1997

Tory vote fell in 1997 compared with 1997

1992   7,353 (17.62%)

1997   3,669 (9.00%)

Shortlisted to be Tory candidate in other places

Surrey Heath in 2004 (won by Times writer Michael Gove) – safe Tory seat at the time with a 10,819 majority (increased to 10,845 in 2005)

Kensington and Chelsea in 2004 (won by ex-Tory Minister Michael Rifkind) – safe Tory seat at the time with a 8,771 majority (increased to 12,418 in 2005)

Rejected by Kensington and Chelsea because “You lack the common touch”

Sunday Telegraph 22.02.04

“I am not going to drop my aitches to appease these people”

On being rejected as Tory candidate for Kensington and Chelsea for ‘lacking the common touch’

The Observer 26.12.04