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…
GB News says it has won a legal battle against Ofcom after the regulator pursued the broadcaster for a 53-second segment of Jacob Rees-Mogg reading out a US court decision on Donald Trump. Ofcom found that it “was in breach of Rule 5.3 of the Code because Jacob Rees-Mogg had presented news in the sequence in question.” GB argued at the time that the application of the rule was too narrow and this was a current affairs, not a news programme – and neither did Rees-Mogg’s words make it one…
The High Court has found today that Ofcom misapplied that rule because it only applies to “news programmes” and there is “no plausibly contended justification” to finding GB News in breach of the rules. The court interestingly said Ofcom’s interpretation of the rules was ‘novel’ and had no substantial precedent in regulation. The regulator will not appeal and has been ordered to pay GB’s legal costs…
GB News CEO Angelos Frangopoulos says: “We are proud that we were the only media company prepared to have the courage of our convictions. I call on the Government and Parliament to consider the seriousness of this fundamental failure by Ofcom.” An embarrassment for the two-tier regulator just as it is ramping up to its new brief of regulating the entire internet…
UPDATE: An Ofcom spokesperson says:
“We accept the Court’s guidance on this important aspect of due impartiality in broadcast news and the clarity set out in its Judgment. We will now review and consult on proposed changes to the Broadcasting Code to restrict politicians from presenting news in any type of programme to ensure this is clear for all broadcasters.”
The first trailer for Meet the Rees-Moggs is out. The reality show will stream on Discovery+ later this year. Looks like fun…
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg issued a stark warning to the Tories last night, saying none of the leadership candidates have a cure for the threat of Reform. He told the grim message to GB News last night:
“The candidates have been good at identifying the problem. But what is the cure when the party is untrusted and Reform has pinched our finest clothes?”
Meanwhile, the candidates are desperately throwing out numbers on a legal migration cap in their efforts to appeal to Reform voters. A reminder: Cameron promised to cap the numbers the tens of thousands. Last year net migration was over 700,000. And over half of Tory members think a merger Nigel’s “real opposition” would improve Tory chances of winning at the next election…
Jacob Rees-Mogg spoke to ITV after today’s PopCon event and turned to 1886 for inspiration:
“I would like to reunite the Conservative family, whether that means they’re formally part of the Conservative Party, or have some arrangement as we did with the Liberal Unionists.”
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”