Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg – who lost his North East Somerset seat to ex-Labour MP Dan Norris – was on Newsnight yesterday. Dan Norris was suspended by Labour after he was arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences last month…
Speculation on whether Rees-Mogg would run again, were there to be a by-election – and for which party – has been rife. Last night, he called for an electoral pact between Reform and the Tories, telling the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire:
“If we oppose each other, we let Labour win large majorities, and that makes no sense. So we want to come together, we want to co-operate, we want to put the national interest ahead of party pride.”
Both Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage have ruled out a national pact between the parties. Rees-Mogg also didn’t rule out standing for Reform…
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”