Exclusive: Tory members must have their say on next leader, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

 Business Secretary tells Chopper's Politics podcast that returning Boris Johnson to 10 Downing St next week would calm the financial markets

Source - Daily Telegraph - 21/10/22

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Conservative Party members should decide who is the next leader, rather than a stitch-up between MPs, Jacob Rees-Mogg has said.

The Business Secretary said that returning Boris Johnson to 10 Downing Street next week would calm the financial markets because it would mean that a general election would not need to be held until late 2024. 

In an interview with this weekend's edition of Chopper's Politics podcast, Mr Rees-Mogg said he was against some sort of deal between Mr Johnson and his rivals, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, to stop party members having a say. 

Mr Rees-Mogg said: "I'm always in favour of the members deciding the leadership - I think that's the right place for it to go. And I think the 1922 Committee and the Board of the Tory Party have done really well to get it to a position where that can be done swiftly. I'm in favour of it going to the membership." 

The Conservatives' poll ratings would recover if Mr Johnson took over as leader, he said, adding: "Boris Johnson provides the best chance of a road to recovery for the Conservative Party. 

"The Tory party has to unite. We have been too divided. And it's striking that when Boris Johnson took over in 2019, we had been 30 per cent behind in the polls.

"Shortly after he leaves, we're back to being 30 per cent behind in the polls. I think he is the only realistic prospect who can unite the party and has a well-shown election winning record."

'Only right to bring person back who has a mandate'

Mr Rees-Mogg said the former PM was the only candidate who could convincingly repel pressure on the party to have a general election because he had led the party to its landslide victory in 2019.

"Boris Johnson clearly has a mandate now constitutionally. A lot of people are now clamouring for a new general election because they say the person who won the election is no longer in charge," he said.

"Boris Johnson won that mandate. He won it from the British people. He won it for five years.

"I think it would be only right to bring back the person who has a mandate, and govern well for the next two years. That is the challenge for the Conservative Party."

It had been "an error" for Tory MPs to dump Mr Johnson, he said, adding: "The British people were always expecting that the leader they put in 2019 would remain the leader and I think it was a mistake to have got rid of him in the first place.

"I thought that removing a leader who had managed to win a majority of 80 [MPs] was always an error. "

Claiming the move would calm the stock markets, he said: "Interest rates in the US have risen further and faster than in the UK. The US is entering into recession.

"There are serious global headwinds economically and we need a period of stable government to face those headwinds."

Setting the historical context, Mr Rees-Mogg said the last British political leader who had been forced out, made a comeback and went on to be Prime Minister was William Gladstone in the 19th century.

Mr Rees-Mogg was confident that Mr Johnson could get the backing of the 100 Conservative MPs necessary to give him a chance of facing the membership next week.

Internal numbers by the Johnson campaign showed that by Thursday evening 50 Tory MPs had privately pledged their backing to the former prime minister, he said.

The Business Secretary said: "I've spoken to a number of fellow MPs and the enthusiasm with which they have responded has again been pleasantly surprising. It gave him a strong momentum against any other candidate."

One MP will defect to Labour

The Telegraph has been told of one Conservative MP who will defect to Labour, while others were threatening to resign the party's whip.

But Mr Rees-Mogg called for unity, saying: "The time has come for Conservative MPs to pull themselves together and support the leader.

"I will support whoever wins this leadership contest loyally and faithfully, because if the Tory party carries on as it is, as a factional grouping or a series of factional groupings, we will not win any elections.

"So though I am strongly pro-Boris - I think he would be the best and right leader - whoever gets it will have my loyal support."

Mr Rees-Mogg added that he wanted "Conservatives to recognise that ultimately we have to support our leader. We cannot keep on changing leader in this way".

He also moved to reassure Tories that Mr Johnson would run a more disciplined 10 Downing Street than the operation which shamed the nation over the so-called "partygate" excesses during the lockdowns.

He said: "The need for clear discipline in Downing Street is very apparent. There were some very good people in the Boris team - people like David Canzini and [Baroness] Simone Finn.

"Strong characters delivering for the Prime Minister. This group of them, they really got together quite shortly before he left - the full contingent. And I think that degree of focus was was very helpful."

'You couldn't expect him to have a personality transplant'

Mr Rees-Mogg said that no more apologies were required from Mr Johnson over the way he left office, besieged by "partygate" and the sleaze scandals involving some of his MPs.

"He did say sorry for some of the mistakes that were made during lockdown so that that apology has been made," Mr Rees-Mogg said.

"Boris said himself that you couldn't expect him to have a personality transplant. Boris Johnson's attraction is that he is a big, charismatic political figure who is able to get things done and who is able to connect with voters in a way that no other politician of this era can."

Mr Rees-Mogg also had a kind word for Liz Truss, who became the shortest lived Prime Minister in British political history when she quit after just 44 days on Thursday.

He said: "I like Liz. I think she tried very hard to implement a series of policies that are attractive policies in themselves, but the global economic circumstances make that very difficult.

"Liz is an admirable person who has had the courage to resign when it became impossible to carry on and has arranged for a swift leadership election to maintain stability within the country.I think she has done a valiant job in very difficult circumstances."

For Tories who have been saying privately that the party needs a spell in opposition to reboot its batteries, Mr Rees-Mogg had a message. "Those people should remember what it was like between 1997 and 2010," he said.

"Opposition means you can fire potshots at the government but you can't actually get anything done. There is no satisfaction in opposition."