Here’s why Jacob Rees-Mogg is a bad choice to defend David Cameron’s undeclared financial interests

Last Updated: April 11, 2016By

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Tory bore Jacob Rees-Mogg was wheeled out to defend David Cameron’s tax avoidance on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning (April 11). This was not a great move for the Tories, considering Rees-Mogg himself has ‘form’ when it comes to failing to declare financial interests.

The Honourable Member for the 18th Century lectured us all on the current legal position. According to him, it is that people are entitled to avoid tax.

He seemed to have misunderstood that the prime minister should not be avoiding tax. It presents a poor example to the people of the United Kingdom, most of whom are allowed no legal right to do the same and must submit to the Pay-As-You-Earn system (PAYE).

Rees-Mogg went on to say tax avoidance is a matter of law, not morality. Yes indeed – but when the law is made by people who participate in tax avoidance, because their own riches permit them that privilege, it is also corrupt.

Add to that the fact that these law-makers have used their influence to extend tax avoidance and the situation is not only unacceptable but unforgivable.

Then Rees-Mogg said the Cameron stake in Blairmore was about “sophisticated” investment – again rubbing in the fact that the vast majority of UK citizens are excluded from such matters.

Of course, the Honourable Jacob William Rees-Mogg MP knows all about undeclared interests. He has repeatedly spoken in Commons debates about industries in which he has financial interests, without declaring them.

According to Buzzfeed.com, “The Tory MP for North East Somerset works part-time for hedge fund Somerset Capital Management, for which he is paid over £120,000 a year, in addition to his job as an MP. The hedge fund, which he co-founded, has tens of millions of pounds invested in tobacco, oil, and coal-mining companies.”

Now read this:

Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke in four debates in the Chamber in support of the tobacco, mining and oil and gas industries without declaring that he is a founder and director of a firm with multimillion-pound investments in the sectors.

In a debate on the cost of living in 2013, Mr Rees-Mogg voiced his opposition to subsidies for green energy production without declaring his interest in oil and gas investments, saying: “The priority for my constituents is that they should have cheap energy, not that we should insist on large subsidies for theories that some people find attractive and others do not.”

Source: Leading Tory backbench MP Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘failed to declare interests’ | People | News | The Independent

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7 Comments

  1. Terry Davies April 11, 2016 at 1:17 pm - Reply

    mogg is another moron who is in power due to votes of the greedy imbeciles deluding themselves into thinking they will personally gain by doing so. IDIOTS.

  2. Colin Glazebrook April 11, 2016 at 1:19 pm - Reply

    Not sure I have a lot of confidence in the judgement of a politician who takes his “nanny” canvassing with him.

  3. Arthur O'Connor April 11, 2016 at 1:33 pm - Reply

    There’s no question of Rees-Mogg’s corruption.He should be questioned by police under caution.

  4. mrmarcpc April 11, 2016 at 2:34 pm - Reply

    I’ve seen him on Newsnight and QT, what an incompetent, posh tosser he is, with a stupid name like that, he could only be a tory!

    • John April 11, 2016 at 6:59 pm - Reply

      Yes, I very quickly realised that he may be a very posh gentleman, but that’s pretty much where it ends!

  5. David April 11, 2016 at 3:08 pm - Reply

    Rees-Mogg: privileged son of Mystic Mogg – undoubtedly the man for whom the word twerp was coined. But he’s not as daft as he looks, since he seems to have found ways to make money, it nothing much else. I’m glad he’s not my MP.

  6. NMac April 11, 2016 at 5:38 pm - Reply

    Rees-Mogg is the weirdest character the Tories could wheel out. All he can achieve is to give us all a good laugh and amaze us that in this day and age such archaic examples of two centuries ago still exist and thrive in the Nasty Party.

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