I’ve always regarded Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg as a bit of a tit – and I’m by no means the only one who detests this poncy Brexiteering Catholic.
Back in 2017 Ginger Wildheart, a British musician tweeted:
I’m hoping someone will photoshop Jacob Rees-Mogg’s face on the IT poster, and change it to TIT.
Several people duly obliged, and I tucked the picture above into my “useful graphics” folder, believing it would come in use some day.
Well, today it did. Rees-Mogg, whose faith informs his politics – such as his faith in corporate greed, top hats and a return to “birching” – has complained that he was “picked on” by Jo Coburn when he was quizzed on his religious and social views during The Daily Politics interview.
The Catholic Herald reports that, after Coburn asked him whether his Catholic views meant he had a problem with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson being a lesbian and pregnant, Rees-Mogg said:
I make no criticism of any of my colleagues, but do you believe in religious tolerance? So why do you pick on this view of the Catholic Church? I am asking you, why do you pick on the views of the Catholic Church?
The Catholic bishops of Shrewsbury and Paisley then accused the BBC of “bigotry” towards Catholicism.
Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury condemned the way the interview was conducted. He told the Catholic Herald:
The hounding of a Member of Parliament like Jacob Rees-Mogg for simply sharing the faith of Catholic Church indicates that the BBC and its interviewers see Catholic teaching as being somehow beyond public tolerance. It is hard to see this treatment of Catholic politicians as being other than a new bigotry.
Bishop John Keenan of Paisley also accused the presenter of trying to:
Hide behind the old red-herrings of ‘other people say’, and ‘members of your own party say’. When that particular trick wasn’t working, she had to lay her cards on the table and put to him the notion – as a serious question, can you believe! – that being a practicing Catholic should be a barrier to high public office.
In short, that Catholics like Rees-Mogg simply can’t be Prime Minister because it’s just not British in this day and age. She openly wondered if it was a ‘problem’ to hold ordinary Catholic beliefs in high office, and seriously suggested that Catholics who were against the likes of abortion and same-sex marriage should be barred from decision-making in public life.
Rees-Mogg was quite right to call this secular bigotry. What else is it?
Bishop Keenan told the Herald that Rees-Mogg was right to:
Point out that this aggressive secularism has nothing liberal about it. He was right to call out the BBC for picking on the Catholic Church particularly, and to signal that it would not treat Muslims or Jews in anything like the same prejudicial way in which it now routinely and casually treats Catholics.
Rees-Mogg’s Conservative colleague Sir Edward Leigh MP, above – a long-standing opponent of LGBT rights – said:
BBC presenters often treat observant religious people in general and Catholics in particular as if they’re not of the modern world. It speaks to the strengths of the Conservative party that people as ostensibly different as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Ruth Davidson get on well in the same party. Actually, I think all the people of this country get on much better than the BBC would really like them to.
The BBC responded:
Jacob Rees-Mogg is viewed by many as a potential future leader of the Conservative Party and possible future prime minister. Jo Coburn did not question his right to be a practising Catholic in public life, and did not raise his Catholicism, but used the interview to explore whether Mr Rees Mogg’s views on gay marriage and abortion were out of step with the mainstream of his colleagues at Westminster.
Both the current and last Prime Minister have backed gay marriage, and argued for the abortion laws in Great Britain to remain largely unchanged.
Jo also referred directly to several Conservative MPs who have said they believe Mr Rees-Mogg’s views on the issues of gay marriage and abortion to be incompatible with leading the party, and it was not unreasonable to ask him to respond to those claims.