"The Boer War had people put in concentration camps for their protection."

That is what British Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said on BBC's Question Time on Thursday as he compared the mortality rate in concentration camps during the second Anglo-Boer War, from 1899 to 1902, saying it was the same as in Glasgow, Scotland, at the time.

"They are not a good thing, but where else were people going to live?" Rees-Mogg asked.

Fellow guest, economist Grace Blakely, interrupted Rees-Mogg and asked him if he was justifying the use of concentration camps.

"No, I didn't ... The Boer War had people put in concentration camps for their protection," Rees-Mogg responded.

Blakely interjected again before Rees-Mogg continued: "I'm afraid you're confusing concentration camps with [Adolf] Hitler's extermination camps … These were people who were interned for their safety, now that is not a good thing."

He added: "It was not systematic murder. That's simply wrong. I'm not advocating people being taken off their farms and put into camps, but there was a war going on and people were being taken there so that they can be fed, because the farmers were away fighting the [Anglo] Boer War."

Blakely tweeted on Friday: "The crazy thing about this is - even though I know exactly what happened during the Boer wars - Rees-Mogg's measured tone and deep self-confidence made me second-guess myself. The deep-rooted urge in British culture to defer to aristocratic authority is truly terrifying."