Jacob Rees-Mogg: the fossil fuel fan in charge of cutting UK carbon emissions
For all the furore over Jacob Rees-Mogg’s “Sorry you were out” notes, used to shame civil servants who were working at home, he only printed and left three on unoccupied desks.
“It was a PR stunt, pure and simple, and that’s Jacob all over,” says one Whitehall source with knowledge of the episode.
The Cabinet Office minister’s move did what it was designed to do: send a signal that Rees-Mogg – and by extension Boris Johnson – was on the anti-woke side of the culture war.
He has played the role of Johnson’s rightwing outrider for three years, saying the things the prime minister could not get away with, such as dismissing Partygate as “fluff”.
And now he is poised to take on the same role for Liz Truss, for whom he hit the media during her campaign by describing her comments suggesting British workers need more graft as “sensible”.
For his loyalty, he has been rewarded with a plum cabinet job as business secretary and Rees-Mogg once again appears to have picked a winner during a Tory leadership campaign.
But for Truss, keeping Rees-Mogg close is a gamble, given his polarising views and propensity to gaffes. He is unashamedly pro-fracking, is in favour of extracting every last drop of oil out of the North Sea and has decried “climate alarmism”. Already, she has had to appoint another minister to sit in cabinet and look after the climate brief after an outcry from pro-green Tories.
The new business secretary, who is strongly pro-deregulation, may also face questions over his continuing financial interests: he retained a substantial stake in the hedge fund he co-founded, Somerset Capital Management, while in Johnson’s cabinet.
The new prime minister has shown her faith in Rees-Mogg by promoting him, but political sources say Johnson
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