Profile: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brexiteer rewarded with Cabinet role
The arch Brexiteer has been made Leader of the Commons.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has been rewarded for his loyalty to Boris Johnson and his hardline Brexit views by being appointed as Leader of the House of Commons.
In an unusual move, Mr Rees-Mogg will attend Cabinet meetings despite not being a full member of the Cabinet.
The fourth of five children, Mr Rees-Mogg was born to a wealthy family steeped in the Conservative Party – his late father William Rees-Mogg was a former editor of The Times and was created a life peer in 1988, while his mother Gillian Shakespeare Morris’s father was a Tory local government politician.
His younger sister Annunziata was also involved in the Conservative party from a young age but went on to win a seat at the European Parliament representing the East Midlands for the Brexit Party in May.
Mr Rees-Mogg, a product of Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, started his working life in investment banking, first in London and later in Hong Kong before returning to Britain.
In 2007 he and some colleagues set up their own fund management firm, Somerset Capital Management.
He stepped down as chief executive of the company when he was elected as Member of Parliament for North East Somerset in 2010.
On the green benches of the Commons, Mr Rees-Mogg has given sketch writers and columnists plenty of material, with his mannerisms and style leading to the affectation “The Honourable Member for the early 20th Century”.
While he also entered into the relatively modern foray of social media in his own style, his first tweet reading “Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis”, Latin for “the times change and we change with them”.
The 50-year-old has also shown his worth to the party having defended Government policy during media appearances – a far cry from a segment on late-night Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show in 1999.
Ali G led the interview about social class addressing Mr Rees-Mogg a Lord, to which he replied: “It’s very kind of you to promote me to the nobility, but my father is Lord Rees-Mogg, I’m just a commoner like everybody else.”
When it came to the main issue of recent times, Mr Rees-Mogg – chairman of the pro-Brexit European Research Group – proved a thorn in the side of former Theresa May.
At the time, he was speaking from the backbenches.
Now his voice will be heard in Cabinet.
