It’s a mark of the government’s desperation that, less than two weeks after his disastrous performance on Newsnight, Jacob Rees-Mogg was wheeled out on the same show again last night. Having done his bit for the Union by dismissing Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross suggesting he wasn’t a ‘very significant figure,’ the Somerset MP has now decided to rewrite the British constitution.
He told Newsnight that if Boris Johnson goes, ‘a change of leader requires a general election’ as the UK is now effectively a ‘presidential system’ and ‘the mandate is personal rather than entirely party’. This is news, of course, to Rees-Mogg’s Conservative colleagues in Parliament.
Will more ministers be willing to come forward to defend Johnson?
Steerpike knows that the Leader of the Commons is a keen student of Walter Bagehot and suspects he can’t really believe Johnson’s departure would trigger a general election, given it would be the new premier’s prerogative whether to call one or not.
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