Cheers as Rees-Mogg tells May to get tough with EU
JACOB Rees-Mogg took the Tory conference by storm yesterday as party activists flocked to hear him call on Theresa May to get “tough” on Brexit.
The North East Somerset MP cemented his position as the grassroots favourite to take over as Tory leader if Mrs May should step down as he lambasted ministers for their “Eeyorish” negativity about Brexit.
He also won plaudits as he directly took on hard-Left Corbynista protesters in debate at a fringe meeting.
As “Moggmentum” took a grip at the Conservative conference in Manchester, Mr Rees-Mogg was cheered by hundreds of adoring supporters when he insisted the UK should not accept any more EU rules and judgments after March 29, 2019.
Speaking at two high-profile fringe events, Mr Rees-Mogg led calls for the Government to quit talks if the EU refuses to start discussing a future trade deal before Christmas and was backed by former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson.
Faffing
His message for the Government to “start being positive about Brexit” was delivered to an audience at a Leave Means Leave event attended by Brexit Secretary David Davis and his junior minister Steve Baker.
Urging Mrs May to get tough with Brussels, Mr Rees-Mogg said there should be no more “faffing around” with talks of a new leader.
At the packed meeting, he told Brexit backers: “Be of good cheer, we won, it’s happening.
“Now what have we got to do? We have got to back Theresa May. Her position needs to remain solid and well supported by all Conservatives to get the Brexit deal done.
“No more faffing around about alternatives to Mrs May – she is our leader, she needs our support, she deserves our support.”
Mr Rees-Mogg said he was “suspicious” of civil servants in the Treasury and Home Office, urging Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd to make sure they were fully behind the Government’s Brexit plans.
As Mr Davis left, he joked: “I have had my instructions now.”
Earlier, at a packed meeting held by the Bruges Group in the Great Hall in Manchester Town Hall, he was introduced to supporters singing: “Oh, Jacob Rees-Mogg”.
Mr Rees-Mogg, who singled out the Daily Express for praise for starting off the push for Brexit, told the audience: “What I want is the best Brexit. Not any old Brexit, not second-hand Brexit, not a Norway and Swiss Brexit, the best Brexit.”
His three point plan was to be “generous, tough and Conservative”.
He said the Government should not “bat around” talks on security or citizens’ rights. He insisted that the “three million brave souls” who have come here should be given the same rights as British citizens, but the Government should not accept the jurisdiction of a foreign court.
He said: “We are not leaving the EU because we don’t like the smell of French cheese, we are leaving the EU because we don’t want to be run by an unaccountable bureaucracy.”
But he said the Government should not be bullied by the EU which is “in a very awkward situation” because it needs British money.
He added: “We must not accept any instruction, EU court or EU rules after March 29, 2019.”
The arch-Brexiteer was cheered when he gave his backing to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has been viewed as mischief making with his “Brexit blueprint” and “red lines” remarks to newspapers.
“I agree with everything Boris has been saying recently,” he said.
Mr Johnson is one of the “great heroes” of Brexit who has been setting out Government policy with “panache, verve and vigour”, he said.
Mr Rees-Mogg used both speeches to attack the Government’s negativity on Brexit.
Pushed
“There has been too much crying into our soup and saying it is all frightfully difficult and we are only doing it because the British people want us to do it rather than because we think it is a wonderful opportunity for the nation,” he said.
“I think the Government has been too Eeyorish about it.”
The politician was also cheered for his handling of activists from the People’s Assembly. The extreme Leftwing demonstrators pushed their way
into the Town Hall meeting, screaming “Tories out!” and threatening to stop the event from going ahead.
But Mr Rees-Mogg took control of the situation by directly debating with them before they left.
Afterwards he drew applause, saying: “We should be really pleased that people want to come to our meetings and engage with our ideas. It’s a glorious thing about our nation.
“We are a free country and we are not afraid of people holding other views to our own, because we think we can win the battle of ideas.”
JACOB Rees-Mogg yesterday successfully stood up to a shouting Left-wing protester by deploying his typical politeness to great effect. The activist, when faced with Mr Rees-Mogg’s disarmingly affable attempt to engage him in discussion, could offer nothing but slogans.
There are lessons here for the Conservatives. The ideological zeal of Corbyn and his followers may be strong but their dogma’s flaws and contradictions are easily exposed.
Their furious ranting is no match for a civil and well put argument.