Supporters who want him as PM praise his authenticity, but hardline views on Europe and social issues would split the Tories

Jacob Rees-Mogg was 24 when he was first asked by a journalist whether he wanted to be prime minister, as the young investment banker railed against the lack of direction and indecisive leadership of John Major.

Challenged by the Mail on Sunday on whether he would one day like to lead the Conservatives, he was described as giving an oily response that he “couldn’t possibly speculate” about his future plans.

More than 20 years later, the aristocratic, fogeyish father of six is again at the centre of leadership speculation, as some supporters of the Tory MP believe he could be the Brexit-loving right’s answer to Jeremy Corbyn.



He has very little politically in common with the Labour leader, but those touting Rees-Mogg for the leadership highlight his proud poshness as a sign of his authenticity and refusal to pretend to be something he is not. He also has the same lack of frontbench political experience as Corbyn, meaning he is untainted by the mistakes of past office.

His backers have tried to echo the success of Corbyn on social media, whipping up a movement dubbed “Moggmentum” on Twitter and Facebook to unite those who want to see him installed as leader.



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However, Rees-Mogg’s chances of successfully challenging Theresa May remain slim. Unlike the Labour party, Conservative MPs have a tighter grip on who they allow to contest the leadership. They alone pick a shortlist of two candidates to be put to a vote of the membership.

His polite demeanour and self-deprecating sense of humour mean Rees-Mogg has some cross-party popularity among his colleagues, attracting the unexpected support of the SNP’s Mhairi Black for his failed bid to be chair of the Treasury select committee. But his hardline pro-Brexit views make him an unpalatable choice for the many Conservative MPs who voted remain or feel equivocal about leaving the EU. One of them, Heidi Allen, has said she would quit the party if he took over.

Rees-Mogg’s staunch Euroscepticism appears to run in the family. He is the son of William Rees-Mogg, a former editor of the Times, who went to the high court to try to block the ratification of the Maastricht treaty.



He is so anti-EU that he once called for an electoral pact with Ukip, has insisted that no exit bill should be paid to Brussels and would like to see the site of Margaret Thatcher’s election victories in Smith Square returned to the Conservative party when the building is given up by the European commission after Brexit.

Rees-Mogg also appears to revel in anecdotes about his privileged upbringing, having confirmed stories about his nanny and maid taking turns to stand behind him, shielding his neck from the sun with a book at the opera in Glyndebourne, and having a private loo reserved for him and King Juan Carlos of Spain at Claridge’s.



Moderate Tories are also likely to have reservations about his views on social issues. As a devout Catholic, Rees-Mogg has criticised abortion laws for having gone “from being something specifically about the mother’s health to being a variant form of contraception”. He also opposed gay marriage.



Rees-Mogg also had to apologise for speaking at a black-tie dinner hosted by the far-right Traditional Britain Group, which advocated the repatriation of “non-indigenous” Britons.

After an education at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, Rees-Mogg worked for the prestigious Rothschild investment bank, before joining Lloyd George Management in Hong Kong, and then founding his own firm, Somerset Capital Management.

He subsequently made several unsuccessful attempts to become an MP, including in Central Fife, where he took his nanny canvassing with him in a Mercedes, before winning the safe Tory seat of North East Somerset in 2010.

During his time in parliament, he has gained a reputation for making humorous interventions from the backbenches and pronouncing the longest word spoken in the House: floccinaucinihilipilification. There are also frequent newspaper articles about his private life, including the naming of his youngest child as Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher.



Since the eruption of Moggmania, the Tory MP has insisted he does not want to challenge May, while setting out his preferred policies in a manner suspiciously similar to trailing a “high Tory” manifesto. He would like to see stamp duty cut, tower blocks demolished and measures to tackle “scarcely competent monopolies” such as energy markets.

“I think if I threw my hat in the ring, my hat would be thrown back at me pretty quickly,” he claimed, while not ruling out giving it a shot.