Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has slapped down Sky News’ Beth Rigby after she made a personal remark about him.
Ms Rigby was interviewing Mr Rees-Mogg at the launch of the Popular Conservatives group in London featured a speech from former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Ms Rigby told Mr Rees-Mogg: “For many people, you embody the elite, you went to Eton, you worked in finance, you are extremely well healed, you are part of the elite.
“Isn’t it ironic that you are talking about popular conservatism when you for many people will be an unreachable elite.”
In response, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “I’m certainly not as elegantly healed as you are, but leaving that to one side I make no bones about it that I’ve had a very fortunate background, but the question is do you believe in the nation-state as the decider and legitimate body for making laws or do you believe it should be international.”
Mr Rees-Mogg added: “I believe in the nation-state, I am a Westphalian, I believe in the Westphalian settlement that it is the nation-state that is the legitimate body making my constituents the legitimate arbiters of power.”
During the interview, Mr Rees-Mogg discussed his position on former president Donald Trump. He said: “The reason I favour Trump is because he is a friend of the UK and Biden is a UK ‘disliker’.
“I am interested in how foreign politicians relate to my country not in what they’re doing in their domestic policy.”
Mr Rees-Mogg was present at the launch of the Popular Conservatives alongside former Prime Minister Liz Truss, GB News presenter Nigel Farage, and MP Lee Anderson.
Also present was the Conservative candidate for the Surrey constituency of Epsom and Ewell, Mhairi Fraser.
During her speech, Ms Fraser rallied against “nanny state” policies she said were being pushed by current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak such as the smoking ban.
She claimed that time was “running out to deliver freedom” and said the smoking ban would “create a ludicrous two-tier system where in years to come a 50-year-old man will be able to legally buy a packet of cigarettes, but his 49-year-old wife will not”.
Ms Fraser added: “It’s certainly not found in continued plans to ban multi-buy deals on sugary foods, meaning a grown adult can commit that cardinal sin of buying two packets of biscuits but cannot benefit from the lowest prices.”
While Ms Fraser also claimed these policies were immoral and ineffective she received one of the biggest applauses at the end.
She was also critical of the Covid-19 lockdowns. She said they had been “the greatest attack on personal liberties under peacetime conditions that this country has ever seen”.
She said these lockdowns had been put in place “in return for very limited public health benefit”.
Ms Fraser later said she believed that Donald Trump was “refreshing” and that Russia is not “a natural enemy”.
