Jacob Rees-Mogg in line for top government job if Boris Johnson becomes UK Prime Minister The pro-Brexit backbencher is tipped to enter government for the first time as Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Jacob Rees-Mogg is potentially in line to join the government frontbench for the first time if Boris Johnson becomes Prime Minister.

The North East Somerset MP has never before held a government job across his nine years in Parliament, but The Times and The Telegraph both reported on Saturday that the pro-Brexit backbencher is tipped to become Chief Secretary to the Treasury if Mr Johnson wins the Conservative leadership contest.

The role would see Mr Rees-Mogg sometimes attend Cabinet, and place him as second-in-command to the new Chancellor, which is rumoured to be Liz Truss, Sajid Javid or Matt Hancock.

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Pro-Brexit Cabinet

Scandal-plagued former ministers Gavin Williamson and Priti Patel are expected to make Cabinet comebacks under Mr Johnson, who has said that his entire Cabinet “must be reconciled” with the prospect of a potential no-deal Brexit.

Andrea Leadsom, David Davis and Dominic Raab, all of whom quit to oppose Theresa May’s Brexit deal, are among the other Brexiteers touted for a return to Cabinet.

Mr Rees-Mogg told The Times: “I know nothing about what Boris plans, but the Treasury has been the architect of Project Fear.”

He added: “The Treasury has had two chancellors [Philip Hammond and George Osborne] who have used the Treasury, abused the Treasury, to make it the campaign headquarters for Remain. Boris will change this.”

Open audition

The MP also appeared to set out his stall for the role in a column published in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph, in which he attacked the Treasury’s pessimistic forecasts about the impact of Brexit.

In the piece, he claimed that “the idea that we will be poorer” because of Brexit is “a myth” advanced by the Treasury at the behest of Mr Hammond.



Mr Rees-Mogg added: “The assumptions fed into the Treasury model, which range from the absurd to the merely dubious.

“The most egregious is the failure to include the annual savings from no longer paying the £20 billion annual gross budget contribution to the EU.

“This omission tells you all you need to know about the Treasury’s pessimistic mindset.”

The Office for National Statistics has previously noted that the £20 billion figure cited by Mr Rees-Mogg fails to take account of the £5 billion UK rebate, the £4.4 billion that returns to the UK through EU-funded public sector credits, and funding that returns through private sector investment.