There is “unutterable chaos” at the top of a government that is tottering from crisis to crisis, says Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
He said on GB News: “Now, this is extremely exciting. We have the runners and riders out of the blocks. We have complete chaos. It’s like that Grand National when almost all of them got confused before the first fence, but some of them have been planning to be prime minister for quite some time, including one Wesley Streeting…
“But the question really is, is this country governable? Just look at Streeting’s letter to the prime minister. He was vitriolic. He said, where we need vision, we have a vacuum, where we need direction, we have drift.
“This compares to what Margaret Thatcher said when she went into Downing Street all those years ago, quoting St Francis of Assisi saying that where there was division, she wanted to bring harmony, and where there was error, she wanted to bring truth.
“It is an incredibly powerful oratorical formulation, but devastating to the prime minister. It’s criticising the prime minister for being wholly out of his depth, wholly unable to lead. But then our great hero, Wes Streeting, he comes on his charger, flags flying, the sword ready to slay the – no. Then he says, ‘well, though I’ve got the number of letters, I think it’d be best not to proceed, because I’m not sure. I don’t know’.
“I very much doubt, personally, that he’s got the letters. So he rides backwards or falls off his charger. Then we get Josh Simons. Josh Simons, you will remember, is the one who got journalists spied on by some dodgy US lobbying group not so long ago and had to resign from the government.
“Somebody of an inestimably high reputation who says he’ll give up his seat for Andy Pandy Burnham, but this seat in the last local elections would have been won by Nigel Farage of Reform. So can Andy Burnham get back into the Commons? Will Wes Streeting ever stiffen his courage to the sticking-place? What about Angela Rayner, she’s been cleared by HMRC. But what does that mean? And what happened there?
“It is all unutterable chaos. And so we have a government that totters from crisis to crisis, led by somebody who is hardly in charge of the Downing Street cat, let alone of His Majesty’s government.”
