Jacob Rees-Mogg: Peers ‘hate Brexit’

Jacob Rees-Mogg has lambasted the House of Lords and questioned its purpose, claiming peers are attempting to frustrate Brexit.

The Commons leader hit out at “the British establishment” which was “doing its best to stop Brexit”.

He said the Lords was “setting its face against the British people” because peers “hate Brexit”.

Mr Rees-Mogg said he grew up in the establishment so “I know how awful it is”.

At a reception at the Conservative Party conference he claimed the establishment has an “anti-democratic wish to cling to its power come what may”.

“You see this in the House of Commons – politicians who said to their electors ‘we accept the result, we will deliver Brexit’,” he said.

But the position is worse in the Lords, claimed Mr Rees-Mogg, whose father was a peer.

Mr Rees-Mogg’s anger appears to stem from the Lords’ decision to rush through the Benn Act, the legislation designed to delay Brexit rather than face a no-deal withdrawal from the European Union on October 31.

“The House of Lords – entirely unaccountable to anybody – has set its face against the British people,” Mr Rees-Mogg told the reception in Manchester.

“If the House of Lords exists for anything – and that’s a debatable point – it exists to ensure that law is made in an organised, structured manner with delay between its stages.

“For the House of Lords to rush through all its stages in 24 or 48 hours hits at the heart of the purpose of the House of Lords, a second chamber which I have always been in favour of because of its ability to be deliberative.

“When – because they hate Brexit – they abandon the principle of their existence, you see that reform becomes necessary for their lordships’ house.

“It cannot carry on setting its face against the British people.”