GETTY Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed speculation that he is in the running to become the next PM

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The erudite backbench MP has been the subject of feverish speculation in recent weeks after a number of polls ranked him second favourite to replace Theresa May after Brexit Secretary David Davis. A recent poll by @DigitalTories on Twitter found 79 per cent support for Rees-Mogg compared to nine per cent for Davis and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

The father-of-six’s cult following on social media has been dubbed “Moggmentum” – a play on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s Momentum supporters – while he also won plaudits earlier this month for a straighttalking appearance on BBC’s Question Time. The North Somerset MP says: “It’s very flattering but backbench Tory MPs do not become leader of their party when the party is in government. The next leader will come from the Cabinet. It’s charming speculation but I’ve held no office, I’ve been a backbench MP for seven years. And there’s not a vacancy, nor do I want there to be one. I want the party to rally around Theresa May. We need certainty and leadership, not chatter about who should take over.”

The real Jacob Rees-Mogg Wed, February 8, 2017 Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the biggest characters in the Tory party. Known for his RP diction, humorous speeches and staunchly pro-Brexit views, the MP for Northeast Somerset is firmly in the public eye Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 12 Jacob Rees-Mogg poses as he delivers a petition against the provision of foreign aid at 10 Downing Street in London

The old Etonian multi-millionaire puts his recent surge in popularity down to his plain speaking: “I think what the public wants is people who are willing to engage in arguments. The one-sentence soundbite is out of fashion. Tony Blair was the best at those but politicians who repeat soundbites again and again are no longer taken seriously by the public.” He blamed advisers for the prime minister’s over-reliance on catchphrases such as “strong and stable leadership” during the election and argues that Conservatives should go back to making “structured” arguments. And he was cheered by the usually left-leaning Question Time audience when he declared that talk of “hard” or “soft” Brexit was nonsense saying, “you are either in the European Union or you leave it”.

GETTY The erudite backbench MP has been the subject of feverish speculation in recent weeks

He also supported scrapping HS2 and “raiding” the foreign aid budget. “What was interesting about Question Time was how much the audience warmed to structured arguments rather than insulting them by saying they can only understand pap,” he says. “I think Conservative arguments are very powerful and when people listen to them they realise that that’s what improves their standards of living: keeping more of the money they earn, buying their own home, the belief that individuals and not the state create society, being masters of their own destiny. “If only the Conservatives had got round to making those arguments during the general election campaign. After Tony Blair, people started to believe that the Conservatives would never be popular again and in response we had Cameron and Osborne softening Conservatism at the edges instead of advancing the arguments for it and ultimately that’s going to fail.

If you start doing what the Opposition are doing but just a little bit less then there’s a danger that people will start voting for the real thing rather than you. “What we should be talking about is how Conservatives can deliver a Brexit that makes the less well off better off, how we should be building more housing. Owning your own home is an ambition for everyone. People don’t want a socialist narrative or being told what’s good for them but to have ambition. We don’t say, ‘This is a little bit difficult so we can’t’, we are about delivering what people want and are justified in wanting.” Joking that he didn’t mind poking fun at himself (“There’s a lot to take the mickey out of”), Rees-Mogg says there were looks of “abject horror” on the faces of his staff when it was suggested he should go on social media. “I very much enjoy Instagram, I find it a very friendly forum,” he says. During last month’s election campaign, a photograph he posted of himself and his eldest son, wearing blue Tory rosettes, outside a Labour-supporting tattoo parlour went viral after he captioned it: “We shall have to take our business elsewhere.”

GETTY The father-of-six’s cult following on social media has been dubbed “Moggmentum”