Select committee wars: Jacob Rees Mogg’s secret weapon

When the Conservatives aren’t busy plotting against one another over a warm glass of prosecco, they are taking the struggle public in the select committee chairmanship elections. While young MPs Johnny Mercer and Tom Tugendhat attempt to usurp the older generation in the defence and foreign select committees, the two frontrunners for chair of the Treasury select committee are Jacob Rees Mogg and Nicky Morgan.

Although it’s been perceived as a battle of Brexit vs Remain (with pro-Remainers expected to collude in order to stop a Leave campaigner taking the plum role), Mr S thinks it would be wrong to write Rees-Mogg off just yet. According to the Brexiteer’s nomination papers, he has been backed by none other than the SNP’s Mhairi Black:

Nominated by (own party)
Nigel Mills, Mr John Whittingdale, Sir Hugo Swire, Nadhim Zahawi, Mr William Wragg, Andrew Percy, Esther McVey, Daniel Kawczynski, Philip Davies, Mr Christopher Chope, Michael Tomlinson, Kit Malthouse, Lucy Allan, Simon Hoare, Mims Davies

Nominated by (other parties)
Gavin Robinson, Lilian Greenwood, Yasmin Qureshi, Carolyn Harris, Mhairi Black

Given that Black is a Remain-voting Scottish nationalist who once mouthed ‘you talk sh–e’ at a Tory minister, it’s no small feat that the Mogg has won her support.