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Jacob Rees-Mogg referred to an African country as “the people’s republic of jam jar or something”, in a speech to Conservative Party Conference.

The hardline Brexiteer made the remark to a packed crowd at a fringe meeting at the party’s annual gathering in Birmingham.

He was referring to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which was the name of Libya under Colonel Gaddafi.

Labour MP and Best for Britain champion Alex Sobel MP said: "This not only shows the same sort of casual racism Boris Johnson has displayed but also a disdain for the rest of the World which would leave us isolated and economically eviscerated if he is allowed his hard Brexit"

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

Mr Rees-Mogg was telling party faithful he thought using the term “people’s vote” sounded totalitarian.

He said: “All the countries who are least interested in their people call themselves ‘people's’, don’t they?

“So the People’s Republic of China? Oh, that’s communist.

“And the People’s Republic of…jam jar, or something like that, of Libya, was what it was called when Colonel Gaddafi was in charge.”

The term Jamahiriya roughly translates as “state of the masses”.

Lib Dem frontbencher Christine Jardine said: “This sort of remark is becoming too common from the Brexiteers, coming as it does in the wake of Boris’s recent burka jibes.

"Insulting other people is not the way I want my country represented and the public see it for what it is, petty politics.”

He went on to declare Theresa May’s Chequers deal “the deadest of dead ducks in thunderstorms.”

Speaking at a rally organised by pro-Brexit website Brexit Central, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “I went to Chequers once.

“I went to Chequers when Ted Heath was Prime Minister. He gave me Garibaldi biscuits.

“I was three at the time, and I thought very highly of Mr Heath because of these Garibaldi biscuits. You see how easily children’s opinions are formed.

“But however many Garibaldi biscuits I was given, I would not support Chequers as it is today.”

Mr Rees-Mogg said neither the Conservative Party, the Labour Party or the EU would vote for Mrs May’s Chequers deal.

(Image: AFP)

He said: “Therefore it is not only a dying duck in a thunderstorm, it is the deadest of dying ducks in thunderstorms.”

The hardline Brexiteer chief also said there was nothing to fear from crashing out of the EU without a deal, claiming a no-deal Brexit would mean we didn’t have to pay the £39 billion divorce deal.

Priti Patel, who was sacked as International Development Secretary after she held off-the-books meetings with Israeli officials, also spoke at the same event.