Jacob Rees-Mogg backs Boris Johnson while outlining his own vision for the nation | ITV News

[Music] Jacob Riis MOG welcome to acting Prime Minister and thanks for having us in your office here in Parliament with your staff beavering away here gather it's been quite a busy week well one or two things going on but thank you very much for inviting me as I've wore my double-breasted jacket as well none does actually say this is my Jacob Riis morgue outfit so you've set a style trend but what were bad to hold true and I what I hope it's not a bad start I start I've joined it and it's interesting me in your office - it looks a bit like you'd expect Jacob Riis marks office - look you've got portraits on the walls perhaps you can tell us through there off yes suddenly I've got a portrait of Thomas Wentworth the first on Stratford who was beheaded in 1641 for supporting the King against Parliament and he was possibly the one advisor who could have made a success of the Civil War from the Kings point of view I've then got a portrait of Robert Peel who founded the modern conservative party but split the party over the corn laws and then I've got a succession of political cartoons that I had to pay him actually and brought in to put on the walls here and a map of some village in North East Somerset and landholdings there which I was given by a constituent because it named an 18th century mug on it to whom I'm connected but sadly would enter delay in the land I'm quite apt portraits in a way considering the times we find ourselves in now there's sort of some parallels there Robert Peel you mentioned this pretty conservative party the battle between executive if you can call the sovereign that and Parliament and there are some parallels though oh who else you write that the strain between the House of Commons and the executive is at a very high point not I'm glad to say high point it reached in the Civil War but what has been going on recently and with all the lettering has been a breakdown in relationship between the government in the House of Commons and the House of Commons trying to do the government's job which then ended in a ridiculous situation where the House of Commons debated against absolutely everything well look for this afternoon we're gonna promote you from the House of Commons into Downing Street that's the aim of this podcast takeover is the cat I know you hope I'm gonna be good at catching mice your name is Mark know to be prime minister of course and there is a vacancy at the moment haha yes I know you've been asked this already but you know just just to double check would you would you want to stand this Prime Minister at this junk on I won't be throwing my hat into the ring now would you ever want to be Prime Minister well one has to deal with circumstances as they are on the circumstance as it is is that I will not be standing in the vacancy that has apparently arisen hasn't yeah it's definitely arisen because the Prime Minister's view yesterday was a conditional one that she would stand down if her deal went through and we don't yet know whether it will go through or not but perhaps in the future you might consider something as Prime Minister it's nothing you've ruled out well it doesn't arise I'm a backbench MP and I will look at the great list of candidates that we're going to get from the many able people in the Tory party whose names will come forward once the competition gets underway this isn't a news programme we're not trying to pressure you into giving us concrete answers but and there are candidates out there already we assume is there a cons day at the moment that you feel you're likely to back I think the parties lucky there are a lot of very able people who would make excellent prime ministers I have very high opinion of Boris Johnson who I supported in the last leadership campaign and was sorry that he decided to pull out but the competition hasn't yet started so I think it's sensible to wait until it does do you think it's right that the next Prime Minister should be Abraxas here well I thought the last Prime Minister ought to be in a brake steer in some ways the advantage of a brake steer is that compromise is always have to be made but if they're made by somebody who is known to believe in brakes it that is easier to carry the nation along than if the Prime Minister is known to be a remainer and do you think it would be more advisable to have a long leadership test or shorter leadership Contras mean some have said why not encourage better diversity of candidates bring some of the younger tan three by having a longer contest well I think once Prime Minister has said that she is going to go and has set a date for it that sets the timetable for the contest the contest needs to start in May from what she has said and then will take about six weeks said the Prime Minister will the new Prime Minister will have the summer to get into office settle down and be ready for the Tory Party conference and the session of flairs in October okay well we've got the new Z stepfather talk about you as Prime Minister in this fantasy world that we're creating for the next half an hour so I want you to imagine that you walk through that Downing Street door that you've just become Prime Minister if you could do anything at that point what do you think the first thing is that you might do is Prime Minister okay well if it were today the first thing to do would be to leave the European Union and we ought to be leaving at 11 o'clock on Friday the 29th of March that day it's now being pushed back but I think the first thing to do if a new Prime Minister came in today would be to ensure that we laughed and once that happens you open up a whole set of new horizons about how the country can be governed you're free from the yoke of Brussels straight away and we could do things that would help people put more money in their pockets we could cut tariffs on food clothing and footwear and we could reduce v80 on domestic fuel we could make those decisions that help people in their daily lives and particularly help the least well-off in society so that's a very big benefit of leaving which in my view should be implemented quickly but the difficulty with breaks it is to slightly swamped all other aspects of domestic policy yeah and these need tackling to I think one of the biggest challenges facing the Conservative Party that any Prime Minister want to deal with is housing we don't build enough houses and housing has become unaffordable for many people I speak in universities quite often as as invited and I almost invariably I ask who here wants to end his or her own home by the age of 35 at which point most hands go up overwhelming majority I then ask ask who thinks he will nor she will and therein by that age at which point many fewer hands go up and we need to be helping people achieve their natural lifetime ambition of being high - oh that's a bleak challenge we then need to look at issues relating to taxation because we have an immeasurably complex tax system that is causing disincentives to earn and to invest in the economy and it's got it successively more complicated and we're taking more tags substantive GDP out of the economy than we have since the early 1970s and that's on a rising trend that needs to be reversed I mean he's you've spoken partly jokingly before about polishing income tax do you think you would seriously like to do something like oh no polishing income tax isn't a realistic prospect the only thing I've said is that when in income tax was reintroduced by glanced and he said it was going to be temporary and would go and that is whatever it is 150 eight hundred sixty years ago said temporary can be quite a long time in political life absolutely and there other taxes maybe that you'd like to polish stamp duty for example if you want to get people on the housing ladder maybe that would be a way - absolutely and one of the things you also need to be doing is to show that the United Kingdom and particularly London is open for business as we leave the European Union and that means making it easier for foreign capital to come in and making London an attractive place for people who bring capital in to locate - and very high levels of stamp due to a disincentive to that so yes I would like to see stamp duty significantly reduced also you may remember George Osborne proposed raising inheritance tax to a million pounds I think doing something with inheritance tax is important because it hits at a penal rate on to estates in the South of England where people have done nothing other than buy their own home and that doesn't seem to me to be fast well there you got to be living in a pretty nice home or at least in a very desirable area to be in a home worth a million pounds that sounds like a policy that might help someone of your ilk not necessarily someone who is struggling to get on the housing ladder but but it isn't a million pounds is it that it's 300,000 pounds currently us outright so in the southeastern in London you're hitting people who are simply living in a house that they've owned for a long time and haven't built up huge reserves of capital okay so the phone's ringing off the hook because the new Prime Minister's just walked through the door what everybody wants to congratulate you and there are world leaders jamming the phone the switchboard well there's one thing I can tell that and that is the switchboard at Downing Street is quite remarkably efficient and helpful III Asian 'el interaction with them and now the most wonderful helpful Politis people to deal with all right we don't wish to slander the switchboard no okay there's huge demands at least to speak to the new prime minister which will leader do you think you'd like to speak to you first the most important relationship that the United Kingdom has is with the United States the first person any sensible Prime Minister want to speak to would be Donald Trump and it doesn't matter who the president of the United States is that person has a mandate from the American people is not for us to determine and therefore that is the key call and would you expedite his state visit do you think I think treating our allies well and laying out the red carpet for them is a sensible thing to do yes you've got to make a speech as new prime minister to try and voke some of your values your principles what do you think your political mantra would be as good as Prime Minister the starting point I think for conservatism is that the aim of the conservative politician is to allow people to lead the lives they want to lead and remove obstacles from their path rather than taking the view of the Socialists who thinks that politicians should set out the path the people ought to follow and direct them in certain ways so my principle for conservatism is based on the individual deciding for his or her own family the best way to proceed rather than top-down state direction I fundamentally don't believe that the man who might Hall knows best to create a former Labour cabinet minister you go to a plaintiff cabinet to you you can have anyone from history dead or alive it's a fantasy cabinet who would you love to put in the cabinet oh that's a fascinating challenged who would you pick from our distinguished history to put into their key posts well I think as Home Secretary you would have Sir Robert Peel the founder of the police force yeah that role yeah founded the Metropolitan Police indeed he did a reforming Home Secretary who made the penal system in the UK much more sensible and balanced got rid of any number of the capital offenses that existed and converted them into ordinary prison sentences so I think the him secretary ship fills itself you don't have to play a whole cabinet just no I'm just going to the kilns too much pressure okay so he won't select you have you like from foreign secretary this is really difficult I think the three candidates would be an canon Palmerston and Salisbury all great 19th century figures and I would probably as we're leaving the European Union and we need a bold and forward foreign policy pick Palmerston nice okay and then for Chancellor I'd bring back Nigel Lawson and have advantage that he's still around I think Nigel Lawson Lord Lawson was the most reforming post-war Chancellor who had great success liberated the city of collaborators for circulation from banking which was he was largely credited with creating the boom in in the city you know some people might debate that but and can't taxation in a way that grew the economy and therefore led to higher tax revenues for the state so they could afford more public services so he managed to get that golden scenario working and the other post that is worth appointing is the party chairmanship post okay which for any conservative is always the key spokesman for the party and makes sure the voluntary side works and basically the party can win elections to implement its brilliant policies and there I think you would choose between Norman Tebbit and sessile Parkinson interesting probably gave a Norman Tebbit because again as he's still alive you could get put him in paste quickly it's time to get on his bike and get out there and start recruiting new members to the power do you think you would be important to have a balance in the cabinet of remainders and practice is that something the Prime Minister's been a pains to do I strongly believe that the Conservative Party is a broadchurch and that it only works if it tolerates the views of people from different wings and whether it's as it is now leave and remain or as it was in the 1980s wets and drys if the Tory Party becomes a narrow section or party it will not win elections you know my views on the European issue and I hold them very strongly and I believe the issue is an important one crucial one for our country's future but there are many able people in the party who don't share that view I happen to think domine grieve is a highly intelligent and capable person I think very highly of Justin greening as well mmm they take exactly the opposite view from the one eye to right now but there are important members of the Conservative Party do you worry about the Conservative Party splitting there's a lot of talk of splits I mean Steve Baker was very angry this week about the Prime Minister's speech for example you would have heard his comments yes say the meeting of them the ERG do you worry that we might be a on the brink of a split in the party well people always worry Tory party is about to split and it doesn't split as often as it is expected to I think the European issue has been particularly divisive but once we've actually left the European Union I think there'll be an opportunity for us to come back together so yes it's difficult yes it is close to a split but I don't think a split is inevitably be avoided with good leadership let's talk a bit about your personality now as as Prime Minister and I think what I find fascinating about you is that in this day and age a lot of people are sort of apologetic for any privilege that they might have had when they were growing up people almost fall over themselves to prove that they work in class or that they had a hardship and I think in this country we can sort of be fairly apologetic for for any help that we've had along the way you don't seem apologetic there which is fascinating you seem quite comfortable with your with your privilege and with people knowing about it I'm normally lucky you know lucky in the family that I was born into that's the biggest stroke of luck and with a stable family background a loving family background which is probably much the greatest advantage beyond material advantage that I've been lucky to have material advantage as well and I think as a politician you want to help people have as much luck and good fortune as one has had oneself rather than saying well I've got this but it's not pretty buddy else you've got to pretend I haven't got it to be dour and gloomy about things but I think one should be upbeat and say look why can't we have every school in the country that teaches people as well as Eton or we know it's not to do with money it's to do with the approach to education we have some of the best schools in the world not just in Europe and we should be proud of that and we should encourage other schools which Michael gave did so successfully to follow in those footsteps do you think people misunderstand serve it isn't them because a lot of people would say Jake every smoke he's a Tory so he doesn't care about poor people Jeremy Corbyn cares about poor people because he wants to spend more money on schools or he wants to have a better distribution of wealth within the country and they might think Jacob Riis MOG doesn't necessarily believe in much yeah I think that it's something that the Labour Party is better for getting its message across and always has been see what I think is that people who are less well-off you have the opportunity to become better off and I think that happens if the state allows them to do it and doesn't get in their way the state doesn't have any money of its own it only has money that it takes from you and gives to somebody else and there aren't enough very rich people just to take all the money from them what you're doing most of the time is taking money from people who are similarly off and giving it to people who are not much worse off but yet taking it out of the system so that the whole economy grows more slowly whereas what I want to do is to create an opportunity where everybody can be better off and you can raise the whole standard of living for the whole country and this is why bang on and on about the ability when leaving Europe of cutting tariffs on food clothing because we have this crazy system where we put tariffs on and on barriers to benefit producers primarily not in the UK in continental Europe so they make money at the cost of the least well-off in our society we need lower taxes you take barriers away you lift all the ships and that's what is conservative I want to do well there's some people worried that you make the state smaller and therefore those who genuinely can't work maybe they have a disability or they fallen on hard times those people who are genuinely vulnerable might have less resource available to them to be spent but one of the really wonderful things that David Cameron was instrumental in making happen along with Iain Duncan Smith was looking at disability in different way and run saying what people couldn't do saying what they could do and I think it's the case that there are million more disabled people in work now than were in 2010 and that that's good for people that's helpful for them and improves their standard of living they make a contribution to the economy yes of course you have to have a safety net for those who can't look after themselves and that should be generous but that would be more generous the more successful the economy is and the more people who are able to succeed for themselves without the state when I asked you bet more about your personal views because you're very polite you're very charming but some people find some of your views on social policies quite frightening in a way and you're very open about the fact you how it holds very traditional views you're a practicing Catholic just to remind people some of the things that you believe in just just remind us where you stand full stand on abortion for example the key thing about abortion is when do you think life starts at what point is it a new life and that is defined by the teaching of the Catholic Church at the point of conception and it's very hard to think of any later point when it changes that is the fundamental point at which life is created and in Catholic teaching a soul is created and that life has rights from the moment it is created it is created by God it is not a responsibility of that point of mankind to take it away and therefore life begins at conception and say the child in the womb deserves protection if that does raise so many difficult questions though as I'm sure you've rehearsed before for example in cases of rape you even believe that abortion is not the right thing to do in if a woman has been raped and she would like to not carry the pregnancy I accept that this is a very difficult question I accept it for a woman who has been raped it is a much more difficult question than if it's been a consensual relationship but a hundred and eighty thousand babies reported every year of which a handful are the result of rape so the argument to say that because there may be a very small number of conceptions because of rape abortion should be legal and is right I think is a false argument it is taking a very extreme case a rare case and then applying it as a general rule it's very interesting the population of Northern Ireland is a hundred thousand more than it would be if the abortion law in GB had applied in Northern Ireland the birth rate is higher that the the live births that would have been eligible for abortion that a hundred thousand people like you and like me who are leading lives in Northern Ireland who if it had the laws that apply and Great Britain would not be that's quite a thought same-sex marriage again something you voted against yes I don't want to interfere in how people lead their private lives that is a matter for them and it's not for me to create the Holy Father to drantch how people lead their lives it's for them to decide but marriage is a sacrament and the sacraments are defined by the church this is very much the same argument as Thomas Moore made about the marriage of Anne Boleyn Henry the eighth that he was already married and he could not reinvent the sacraments sacraments cannot be legislated for because they belong to a higher authority so in this fantasy world where you can do anything as Prime Minister would you want to repeal some of these laws no that's a very good question the Prime Minister is not in that position that it would require Parliament to agree in train and I think it is right that these matters remain a free vote I think it would be wrong of me to seek to impose the teaching of the Catholic Church on people who are not Catholic but it would be equally wrong with me to pretend that the teaching of the Catholic Church does not exist and that I do not believe it I feel it's I should be honest with voters about what I believe but I also have to recognize that not only is this not a theocracy but I wouldn't want it to be a theocracy it's interesting because politicians often get asked about their religious views and what does he make of Tim Farron for example not being able to answer the question of whether he thought gay sex was it do you think he should be able to answer that question as a politician is if as a party leader as he was then I have a great deal of sympathy for the position to empower and found himself in because oddly the Liberal Democrat Party is not very liberal that you have to subscribe to set politically correct views and it's very difficult to be an believing Christian within the Liberal Democrats and it's interesting Dave Dalton Laurelton had to leave the Lib Dems as a practicing Catholic some years ago because of the Lib Dems views on abortion and Tim Farron found that his religious belief was incompatible with being a party leader I think that's very sad and I think it shows an intolerance of those who promote tolerance they don't actually really mean it there any tolerant as long as you subscribe to their view what about something like capital punishment would you want to bring that back no what I said about the unborn child applies to the criminal as well that these are valued lives that it is not the right of mankind to take away life so I'm opposed to capital punishment as well as I'm opposed to abortion gender reassignment surgery well gender reassignment surgery can depend on the circumstances that there are some people who are born without it being clear precisely whether they are a bio main women use what about someone believing that they've been born into you I think this is a very complex area and it's not one that is easily subject to general rules and you have to look at the individual circumstances it's not in a way a matter for legislation because it's a matter for individuals who inevitably have control over what is done to them and what is done to their bodies it's not for me to tell people that they should not have any particular form of operation that is an individual decision he seemed to sort of defect defend the freedoms and the rights of an individual you don't seem to want to impose your religious views on others necessarily you seem fairly happy to hold them privately and perhaps with those around you in your family but not to impose them on the country as a whole I tell you can impose them on the country as a whole that people will believe in their hearts what they want to believe both the Catholic and the prostitute churches tried in the 16th and 17th century forcible conversions of people it didn't actually work and it was very brutal and in truth it was sinful forcible conversion of people is not a sensible way to go people need to come to faith through the grace of God not because they've been bullied into it there are these interfaces there between the Staton and religion they do come up as a prime minister they would come up for you for example this week there's been a vote in parliament on relationships and sex education in schools I know you abstained on on that one why did you feel you need to abstain on that it's because fundamentally I think relationship education is the job of parents not at the state and there's been a lot in the news as well about LGBT elements of that education do you think it's right for parents to protest outside schools because they are upset with their children learning about LGBT relationships in my view it is up to parents to tell their children about these things and not for schools I'm not a great one for waving banners about premises but I certainly believe in freedom of speech I have no objection to the people who trapped me as I go in and out of the houses of parliament who may or may not agree with my views on brexit that that is part of freedom of speech and if you believe in freedom of speech you have to accept people protesting the things that you disagree with as well well as for those that you agree with it's part of your daily routine anyway that isn't it running that gauntlet no judo people mostly very polite including the ones who disagree with me most in terms of talking about social media and disagreements there have been some controversy lately about the comments made in facebook groups that were in your name some Islamophobic comments that were made why do you think people with those kind of views would be attractive to a group studies linked to you not set up by you but but has your name on it well it's not linked to me at all it's nothing to do with me and I can't stop people putting my name on things on Facebook I actually discovered it's worse than that that people can send you a message saying do you want to be in this group and if you don't reply for anything notice is your name gets listed as one of the people know that the appearance of things in facebook can very easily not be the Rowsey I made it very clear that people like that not anytime they link to me but I think it's right there removed from the Conservative Party I believe in religious toleration without in any way then thinking that the teaching of the Catholic Church is not the truth with a capital T why do you think people who hold those views are attracted to you I think you find that they are attracted all sorts of people it's not just that they're attracted to me some of them I think probably troublemakers and they enjoy stirring things up a bit and causing a bit of a ow and therefore they associate with politicians thinking that they can do that and others just have very unpleasant views but I'm not the only politician who's found that people have put their name in groups and have said that they support turned so but I have no truck with any of that do you read the comments that you get on social media because you're quite into Twitter now I quite enjoyed Twitter know there are too many for me possibly to read them all that I do have a look and see how many people have commented but I think some of you have put out last week had six or seven thousand comments well I had to do nothing but read comments I don't sometimes glanced them I tend to look more at the ones on Instagram it's a bit fatter because they're charming they're absolute charming people are so nice on Instagram and I periodically even reply to them on Twitter say I think we were talking earlier you think it's healthier just not to read these you can't possibly keep up with it and it's it's better not to alright we're almost out of time so there's Prime Minister you've just got to make some snap decisions before we go firstly would you be willing to press the nuclear button oh if the country was about to go to nuclear war unquestionably yes okay that's a simple one would you scrap the benefits freeze I think the benefits creeps Gries has reached the end of its life okay that's interesting and what song which he danced to a party conference if you had to do it to reason a income a dancing I wouldn't know I can't dance no I've never been able to dance and therefore no no dancing I think it would have to be with the song that perhaps we played is seniorita nina from argentina who may remember married a one-legged man from venezuela because he couldn't dog and my sympathies have always been with sin reason Nina okay excellent and what would your Downing Street pet be oh good heavens that's a really good question well I have a ten-year-old daughter who is completely obsessed about getting a dog right and therefore if needed to be a dining street pet I would have to give in to Mary and then she would a last bill to get her dog which I'm quite keen to do anyway cuz I believe in giving in to my daughter so I think it'd be a probably Dalmatian that's where she wants it then Larry my heartis sling is up top and lastly where would you go on your holidays because quite often fascinated to see Prime Minister relaxing on holiday well as long as you make sure my wife doesn't watch this what I really like to do is to go down to Somerset I can't go anywhere else I like being good Somerset's exotic enough feed oh I just love being a home in Somerset when you're relaxed and you're not running around like whatever it is that runs around and so being at home in Somerset for a couple of weeks when one isn't on duty is absolutely perfect and other people can travel to far-flung parts you know I'm afraid to say I think the best thing of going on holiday is arriving back in Heathrow and the real goodness I'm home yes you don't enjoy traveling really well quite like the travel but I'm always absolutely delighted to get back even when you go to immigration and those were granted sure though they were very polite but nonetheless you're back home fantastic alright well Jacob Riis my evening a fascinating and C Prime Minister thank you so much for coming on thank you you've got a busy week something like that you go you're very kind thank you very much thank you [Applause]

Channel: ITV News

Views: 102,338

Rating: 4.2153258 out of 5

Keywords: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative Party, Brexit, Politics, British Politics, Theresa May, European Research Group

Id: NbwNm2Ljvq8

Length: 31min 56sec (1916 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019