SIR Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned that replacing HM Government lessens constitutional safeguards and the rights of the British people.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “The basis of our constitution is the King in Parliament. How does this work? Parliament is made up of three different bits, or was until the changes in 2005 or thereabouts: The King and his ministers, the legislature and the judiciary.
“The King and his ministers form His Majesty’s government. They present the programme to Parliament, outlined in the King’s Speech, and then reported on at the prorogation of Parliament.
“The MPs, the peers, are the legislators who debate the laws as they come through, and the judges then decide what the law is that has been passed. This is always set out at the beginning of the Queen’s or King’s Speech.
“It’s ‘my government’, and it’s ‘my government’ for a reason, because it is the way our constitution works – as a constitutional monarchy. So, ministers have power, but all the power that they exercise is the Royal Prerogative.
“They advise the King, and he then follows their advice. He is almost bound to follow capital A advice from the Prime Minister. In return, he can warn, he has the right to be consulted, and he can give his view, but he will follow that advice.
“But he is the pinnacle and also the safeguard. Because one of the great safeguards of our system is that it’s not the politicians exercising their own power but advising somebody else to exercise the power of the state through the person of the sovereign.
“And that is a protection against unduly authoritarian government. Not that the King will say no to formal A advice, but advice that he might say no to will never be given to him, it won’t get through to that point.
“So changing it from His Majesty’s Government to UK Government lessens the safeguards and reduces the basis of our constitutional setup. It goes from making it essentially a constitutional monarchy to a republic in all but name with the power seen as being with this amorphous body known as the UK Government, which has no head, no formation and no history.
“And history is part of it; the romance of our country, the understanding of how it flows down from King Alfred, who you can see as the founder of this dynasty which still rules today, from reigning in the ninth century.
“You can see it through the way that we don’t need to put our country on our stamps. We’re the only country that just has the picture of the sovereign. Why? Because, actually, we issued them first.
“We have these little quirks within our system that usually have some point to them. And taking this away is symbolically important because it’s trying to show, as socialists always want to show, a year zero.
“We don’t need to be linked to our history. We don’t need to be proud of our history. We don’t need to worry about what we did before. We need to think that we’re starting again and afresh.
“It’s essentially trying to impose a 1789 style new constitution on this country, which nobody wants. Blair kept on legislating in this direction. This is being followed up by taking away some part of it that is, actually, fundamentally important.
“It’s a link to history. It keeps politicians who don’t always come out smelling of roses, in their place, and it is a fundamental way in which our law operates through the King in Parliament.
“That is the protection of your rights and my rights. It is a protection against over-mighty government. Of course, this lot don’t like it because they are over-mighty.”
