Govt’s customs partnership proposal “completely cretinous”, says Rees-Mogg

Jacob Rees-Mogg has described one of the government's official Brexit proposals as "completely cretinous" – and warned against any attempts to stay in the customs union after transition.

The hardline MP – who praised the "enigmatic" Prime Minister Theresa May – rubbished the customs partnership, one of two proposals put forward by the government, as "completely cretinous". Asked if it would be a betrayal of the referendum result, he replied: "it would be a betrayal of sense".

Rees-Mogg slammed efforts by Remain rebels to stay in the customs union, saying that it "means you become a tariff-taker and a rule-taker from the EU – thats worse than what we have now."

The non-binding vote on the customs union, scheduled for Thursday, was "about as useful as the wallpaper in this room," Rees-Mogg said.

He also warned Lords they are "playing with fire" as he rubbished last week's customs union amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

The influential Tory backbencher, who chairs the hardcore European Research Group, echoed comments by Lord Forsyth by saying it was a case of "peers against people", warning that people could soon get "fed up" with Parliament's upper house.

"I think it's deeply unattractive," he told an Open Europe event. "It's the weakest position for the House of Lords to be in.

"There is a problem with the House of Lords, which is it is very condescending towards the democratic vote. It seems to think that they know better than 17.4m people."

The North East Somerset MP added: "When it challenges the democratic will, as it is doing now, then we get fed up with it and think it has very little legitimacy and needs to be challenged.

"Their Lordships are playing with fire and it would be a shame to burn down a historic House."

Rees-Mogg said compromises on sectors such as fishing in order to secure a trade deal would be a "socialist" approach of crushing the individual for the collective, drawing parallels with the recent Windrush scandal.

"[The scandal] came about because the state put the interests of the collective ahead of those individuals who had come here perfectly legally prior to 1973, and that it was more convenient for the Home Office to make them prove who they were and show their papers," he said. "This is socialism."

And he blasted the "EU-funded CBI" for protecting vested interests of business. "My constituents are consumers," he told the room.

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CityAM

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