Jacob Rees-Mogg was conspicuous by his absence at the Conservative Party's general election manifesto launch event today.

All of Boris Johnson's most senior Cabinet ministers were in the front row in Telford to watch as the Prime Minister set out the Tories' spending plans ahead of polling day on December 12.

But Mr Rees-Mogg, the Commons Leader, was nowhere to be seen and did not appear to be in attendance.

He has been sidelined during the general election campaign so far after he apologised for comments he made about the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.

It is unclear exactly why the senior Brexiteer was not at the manifesto launch but his absence caused raised eyebrows.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been sidelined from the Tory election campaign after he made insensitive comments about the Grenfell Tower fire

Mr Rees-Mogg did not attend today's manifesto launch but tweeted his support on Twitter

However, he did tweet his support for Mr Johnson and and the manifesto after the PM had finished setting out his plans.

Mr Rees-Mogg tweeted: 'The Prime Minister is quite right. It is "the private sector that makes the brilliant technical breakthroughs that enable us to cut CO2 and pay for great public services and create great high skilled jobs".'

Mr Rees-Mogg had been one of the Conservatives' most prominent voices in the media since Mr Johnson became PM.

But he was sidelined at the start of the election campaign after he 'profoundly apologised' for suggesting Grenfell Tower victims who followed firefighters' instructions to 'stay put' in their flats as the building burned had lacked 'common sense'.

He had been asked on LBC Radio about the decision of the London Fire Brigade to not evacuate the burning block for almost two hours and he told host Nick Ferrari: 'The more one's read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you're told and leave you are so much safer.

Boris Johnson's Cabinet filled the front row of the Tory manifesto launch in Telford this afternoon but Mr Rees-Mogg was nowhere to be seen

'And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn't happen.'

His words caused a storm of outrage and he later apologised in a statement: 'I profoundly apologise.

'What I meant to say is that I would have also listened to the fire brigade's advice to stay in at the time.

'However, with what we know now and with hindsight I wouldn't and don't think anyone else would. I would hate to upset the people of Grenfell if I was unclear in my comments.'