LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Jacob Rees-Mogg has refused to retract his comments about the Downing Street partygate controversy being “fluff” and “fundamentally trivial.”
Asked about partygate by callers on LBC, the Brexit minister claimed it’s “not the most significant subject in the world” because the war in Ukraine is still going on.
Some of the COVID rules in place at the time of the partygate crisis, according to Mr Rees-Mogg, were “inhuman.”
Mr Rees-Mogg dismissed the row about parties conducted in Downing Street and across Whitehall during lockdown as “fluff” last month.
‘Disproportionate fluff of politics’
Last month, at the Conservative spring conference in Blackpool, the Brexit minister claimed that the Ukraine war demonstrated that partygate was not a significant issue.
During a live taping of his Moggcast podcast, he said, it was a reminder that the world was serious, that there were serious topics to address and serious decisions for politicians to make.
Whether it’s about restarting and obtaining new licences for oil wells in the North Sea, or about escaping the ‘wokery’ that has afflicted large swaths of society, nobody anymore bothers if the word ‘grip’ offends people, he continued.
All that rubbish was exposed for the nonsense it was… he would say the same thing about partygate: it had all been exposed as the disproportionate fluff of politics that it was, rather than something of fundamental importance to the world’s security and established global order, he added.
“Completely reasonable” comments
“No, I am not going to do that,” Mr Rees-Mogg said when asked if he would apologise for his remarks.
He was going to try to put things in context.
There was a war going on in Ukraine, atrocities were being committed, and the world had photographs pouring in showing Putin’s army’s immense savagery.
And what he was saying was that this wasn’t the most important issue in the world, not just in terms of Ukraine, but also in terms of the cost of living issues.
“Having stated that, it goes without saying that everyone should follow the law.”
Mr. Rees-Mogg went on to say that his comments were “completely reasonable.”
He believes those words were entirely fair in the context of what was going on in Ukraine, he remarked.
He doesn’t believe the subject of what may or may not have occurred in Downing Street and what they were now learning was crucial.
And what he was saying was that this wasn’t the most important issue in the world, not just in terms of Ukraine, but also in terms of the cost of living issues.
“Having stated that, it goes without saying that everyone should follow the law.”
Mr. Rees-Mogg went on to say that his comments were “completely reasonable.”
He believes those words were entirely fair in the context of what was going on in Ukraine, he remarked.
He doesn’t believe the subject of what may or may not have occurred in Downing Street and what they were now learning was crucial.
