Rees-Mogg rallies the Catholic Tories

Some Tories are losing faith these days – but there was no sign of it in parliament last week. Jacob Rees-Mogg kicked off the launch of ‘Catholics in the Conservative party’ on Wednesday night, to a packed room bedecked in Union Jacks and Vatican flags. The likes of former Cabinet ministers Damian Hinds and Sir Iain Duncan Smith gathered to herald the launch of the new group headed by former Canterbury MP Julian Brazier. In a speech that mixed the serious with the humorous, Rees-Mogg explained how:

I did not set out in my political career to be somebody who went around talking about religion. I fell into it entirely by accident when I was interviewed by Piers Morgan on a show called GMB. Now, I don’t watch early morning television, frankly, I don’t think gentlemen do watch early morning television. When I was sitting in the studio and it said GMB, I thought this was the general municipal employee bureau and I started to wonder why I was there.