Jacob Rees-Mogg at the screening of Meet The Rees-Moggs (Image: Getty)
The Tories suffered a brutal defeat in July’s election – their worst result in over a century – and lost his seat as MP for North East Somerset, while being savagely heckled.
Now a new -style reality series, Meet The Rees-Moggs, will see him pour out his feelings about the hate he experienced behind the scenes – although his reaction to being publicly humiliated isn’t what fans might expect. In a Q&A on Monday night (November 26), host Matt Forde quizzed him on whether he’d felt “totally dehumanised” by graffiti which branded him a “posh t**t”.
The insult, scrawled across a campaign sign advertising him as a MP, was one of many, with the founder of the group Mogg Watch insisting: “Everything he stands for is bad. He seems to despise people who are poorer than him – and that’s most of us!” Rees-Mogg’s wealth has been estimated at “well over £100 million” by Spear’s Wealth Management magazine, with assets including an investment banking firm, while his wife Helena, the daughter of a fellow politician, has an inheritance valued at £45 million.
Forde asked him: “Do you think sometimes that there’s a sort of inverted snobbery in Britain – that because people think that you’re privileged, you’re dehumanised in some way [and are] a target in a way that other politicians might not be?” However, Rees-Mogg kept his cool as he insisted: “I wouldn’t over-analyse it like that.
“I think some people just didn’t want the to win the election – and I’m afraid some probably damage posters belonging to other parties too,” he surmised. “That’s not something I would encourage, but it’s part of politics.” Forde tried again to punctuate his point, arguing: “No, but you’re still human beings with feelings. It’s not pleasant to have people shouting at you or your family in the street.”
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Jacob Rees-Mogg with his heiress wife Helena (Image: Getty)
Rees-Mogg dismissed the insults hurled at him as “sticks and stones”, insisting: “All parties damage each other’s posters.”
His wife Helena chimed in to declare: “If you want a quiet life, don’t get into politics!”
It’s safe to say that he’s given up his privacy and seclusion voluntarily to take part in the new TV show, which sees him smile and thank even those members of the public delivering blistering insults, while going about his campaign.
On screen, after hecklers yell “Down with the !” and brand him a “very dangerous far right MP”, with some even campaigning in the street for Somerset residents to use tactical voting to oust him from his seat, Rees-Mogg never loses his composure.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg at a Q&A ahead of next month’s reality show launch (Image: Getty)
He merely smiles calmly as he insists that dealing with the opposition is “all the fun of politics”.
The first episode of Meet The Rees-Moggs, which airs on December 2 on Discovery+, will also introduce viewers to Jacob’s mother, who’s “still going strong in her mid-80s”, and his six children – five boisterous boys who skirt around the rules to play cricket inside his Grade II listed manor house, and a teen girl, who’s doing her best to teach her dad slang.
Viewers won’t see the family at ‘s 60th birthday party – even though all eight of them accepted the invite to the bash – as he was branded “too shy and retiring” to want to face the TV cameras.
There’s also an insight into the family’s Catholic faith, as Rees-Mogg earnestly attempts to show his seven-year-old son the ropes ahead of his holy communion ceremony, explaining that seven is the age when children are deemed capable of understanding right from wrong.
He vowed that his fly-on-the-wall show will be a “completely different kettle of fish” from , although he also admitted that he hasn’t watched a single episode.
While there’ll be no tearful confessions, the coverage of the family’s struggle through the election campaign is lively in another type of way – and, as one newsreader featured in the first episode points out, “As always with British politics, prepare for chaos!”