Rees-Mogg comments during visit draw fire from Plaid MP

SENIOR MP Jacob Rees-Mogg denied detecting any appetite for Welsh independence while on a visit to North Wales.

Mr Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons, visited Gareth Wyn Jones’s farm in Llanfairfechan, the Aber Falls whisky and gin distillery in Abergwyngregyn, and Zip World in Bethesda.

At the Aber Falls distillery, he described their new Inaugural Release whisky as “quite creamy and very smooth”, and likened himself to a contestant in the Generation Game as he tried to catch some whisky from a cask in a glass.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “What’s been wonderful about what I’ve been doing today is the entrepreneurial spirit.

“What the Government can do is create the circumstances where business can do business, but it requires entrepreneurs to think up ideas. The investment in a whisky distillery is huge because you can’t sell anything for three years and a day (during the distilling process). So very cleverly they’ve done gin and flavoured gins beforehand to try and provide some cash flow (at Aber Falls).”

On independence, Mr

Rees-Mogg said: “From visits I’ve been doing so far, there’s been nobody banging that particular drum.

“During the pandemic the balance sheet of the UK meant we could spend £407 billion (in Covid support) to protect jobs and businesses and ensure businesses could revive once restrictions were lifted.

“No component part of the UK could have done that on its own.

“And the vaccine was a UK wide project.

“Since we left the EU, people are seeing how important it is to all of us (to have a united UK) whilst respecting we all have our differences.”

But Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts said: “Etonian multi-millionaire hedge fund investor Jacob Rees-Mogg will never understand the struggles many here face every day thanks to his government’s disastrous policies.

“I hope Mr Rees-Mogg visits us again soon.

“He is doing a sterling job of reminding people how Westminster fails the communities of Wales.

“He’s a travelling salesman for independence. Thank you, Jacob.”