ANTI-ABORTION MP PROFITS I won’t say I like it but the world is not always what you want it to be
MULTI-MILLIONAIRE Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted his investment firm profits from abortion pills – even though he wants to deny rape victims the right to terminations.
His company has nearly £5millionworth of shares in the Indonesian firm Kalbe Farma, which produces the pills to prevent ulcers.
But they also trigger terminations, can be bought in pharmacies and are used widely in Indonesia – where there are an estimated two million illegal abortions each year.
Yesterday father-of-six Mr Rees-Mogg defended the investments and said he would not resign his investment post.
But he admitted: “It would be wrong to pretend that I like it but the world is not always what you want it to be.”
The staunch Catholic, who is tipped to succeed PM Theresa May, is a partner in Somerset Capital Management, the investment firm he co-founded in 2007.
The North East Somerset MP, 48, is paid more than £14,500 a month for 30 hours of work for the company.
He will not reveal the dividend payments he receives for his 15 per cent share in the firm, based in London’s upmarket Belgravia.
But partners have trousered nearly £60million between them since 2010.
BRAND
According to this year’s interim report, two of Somerset Capital Management’s investment funds hold £4.8million in shares in Jakarta-based Kalbe Farma.
The pharmaceutical firm make misoprostol, a generic abortion drug sold under the brand name Invitec. They also manufacture oral contraceptives. Invitec is marketed under its other use as a gastric ulcer preventer because abortion, other than in cases of rape or to save a mother’s life, is illegal in Indonesia.
But the international women’s rights organisation Women on Waves say it is available in Indonesian pharmacies.
The Dutch-based organisation advises women in Indonesia on how to obtain the drug and the circumstances in which terminations are legal in the country.
It says: “Abortion is permitted to save a woman’s life, in cases of foetal impairment and in cases of rape. Spousal authorisation is required. Misoprostol is available in pharmacies under the names Chromalux, Citrosol, Cytostol, Gastrul, Invitec and Noprostol.”
Yesterday Mr Rees-Mogg defended the investments.
He said: “Kalbe Farma obeys Indonesian law so it’s a legitimate investment and there’s no hypocrisy. The law in Indonesia would satisfy the Vatican.”
In an earlier phone call, Mr Rees-Mogg