VOTE2019 Conservatives
ADDING INSULT TO INJURY
It is said that the quality of a leader can be judged by the people they surround themselves with – so what should we make of Boris Johnson?
Perhaps the other most recognisable Conservative MP, and Johnson’s fellow Eton old boy, Jacob Rees-Mogg is an example of the once fringe figures now within close orbit of the prime minister.
At the beginning of November, multi- millionaire Rees-Mogg horrified the nation by making clear that he would have had more “common sense” than the 74 victims of the Grenfell Tower and escaped death from the burning building.
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari about the release of the first part of inquiry into the tragedy, Rees-Mogg said, “The more one’s read over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you’re told and leave you are so much safer.
“And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do.”
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey was truly outraged. In a Twitter response he said, “Unite members died in Grenfell. Others lost loved ones. Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t do personal attacks, but when Tories show such disrespect to hard- working people it’s difficult for me not to. However, for all victims of Grenfell I’ll simply say Jacob Rees-Mogg must go.”
Disgust
The public disgust at his hideous comments forced cabinet minister Rees- Mogg into a grovelling apology, but not before another Tory MP, Andrew Bridgen, weighed in with an equally disturbing take.
Bridgen backed up Rees-Mogg’s assertion that he would have survived by suggested that the minister would have escaped the blaze because Rees-Mogg is “clever”.
BBC Four presenter Evan Davis asked Bridgen during an interview if Rees-Mogg was in effect saying “I wouldn’t have died because I would have been cleverer than the people who took the fire brigade's advice”.
Bridgen replied, “But we want very clever people running the country don’t we,
10 uniteWORKS Winter 2019
First they trash the country then they mock our communities – does the Conservative Party have no shame?
Evan? That’s a by-product of what Jacob is, and that’s why he’s in a position of authority.”
Rees-Mogg and Bridgen are now part of the Tory establishment, being both prominent Johnson supporters and hard Brexiteers, especially now 21 more moderate Tory MPs have been expelled from the party. But what about the new recruits vying to join parliament as a Tory MP during this election?
Once such hopeful is the Tory candidate for Gower, in South Wales, Francesca O’Brien, who wrote on social media that the people appearing on the TV programme Benefits Street needed “putting down”.
In posts exposed by the Guardian newspaper this month, O’Brien wrote on Facebook in January 2014, “Benefit Street...anyone else watching this?? Wow, these people are unreal!!!”
Responding to comment on the platform, she added, “My blood is boiling, these people need putting down.”
O’Brien also “liked” a suggestion made by
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