Jacob Rees-Mogg BLASTS Death Tax: "It's OUTRAGEOUS. It's Monstrous"

If you want a man of unbelievable political experience who speaks the truth, you get my next guest.We're delighted to say a very good morning.Please, God, it works.Sir Jacob Rees -Mogg, how are you, my friend?

I'm very well, thank you.How are you?

I'm very well.I'm still smarting from all sorts of things, Jacob.We've had technical problems, which fears me when you're on with us, but fingers crossed it'll be all right.Can we start on a serious note?

I'm very sorry your cousin lost his job in the reshuffle.You must be feeling for Peter.

Right, listen.Listen, Rees -Mogg.Right, listen.OK?Yes, I married the nanny, right?Yes, yes, we've had that.

And absolutely, Peter Kyle is nothing to do with my family, all right?Honest to God, every time.Jacob, on a serious note to start, much to talk about.Reform UK have reported Zac Palancey to the police for sharing that terrible photograph.It showed...It was basically a T -shirt about Nigel Farage's execution.

It showed a guillotine with the slogan, We're only making plans for Nigel.A couple of points here.I can't even get over how distasteful this is in the wake of Anne Widdicombe's appalling murder.I see it as another example of two -tieredness, because can you imagine, my friend, if somebody on the right had dared to like or anything like this?And one thinks instantly of Lucy Connolly.I don't agree with anything she put in that tweet, but she put up something wrong, she deleted it, and she was imprisoned for 31 months, Jacob.

Yes, the Instagram post that went up was absolutely dreadful, a terrible thing to have put up.I think the difficulty for reform is that they had Lucy Connolly as a guest speaker at their party conference last year, they had her on the main platform, they were talking about her standing for the party at the next election, and her tweet and this Instagram message are just as dreadful.So I thinkwith you, we should not have two -tier justice.And as she was prosecuted, it's right that the police are looking into Zak Polanski.But reform... has to be careful of having two -tier views on freedom of speech.

When it was Lucy Connolly, they wanted to make her a heroine, which was a stupid thing to do.She is not a heroine.And now it's Zak Polanski, they're saying, bring in the police.So I think reform needs to say very clearly that it was wrong about Lucy Connolly, that her tweet was bad.Otherwise, it has no ground on which to object to Zak Polanski.

Do you believe that Polanski should resign as a party leader bearing in mind that I suspect that if Kemi Badenoch, Andy Burnham, Nigel Farage did the same they would be forced to resign or is it because he's not an elected MP, Jacob?

Well, he's not a serious figure of any kind.I can't think that his resignation would be helpful to reform, because he's a very inadequate leader of the Green Party, who has made mistake after mistake.I rather think from a narrow party political advantage, the longer he stays there, the less relevant the Greens become.

Very interesting.Yesterday saw a poll by the Move, the More In Common poll.First time in a year, 352 polls that reform isn't in the lead, and in fact, Labour 28 percent, Reform 24, the Tories moving slightly, 22.Do you put this down to the Burnham bounce or do you put this down to questions that have naturally been asked recently about reform who seem less on the front foot, Jacob?

I think it's a bit of both.I think that the Burnham bounce is a relevant factor in this, that he's new, he's better at PR than his predecessor, he's offering up lots of sweeties.At every street corner, you're getting a sweet from Andy Burnham.At some point, that has to be paid for, and that will make people less useful.about Andy Burnham, but for the first days and early weeks that's helping him.And there have been problems with reform, the source of their donations, their failures into by -elections.

It hasn't been plain sailing.They've been making a number of unforced errors, and it seems to me that that is part of the reason their vote's gone down.Oh, thank you so much.God bless you.We've got a supporter, I think.So it seems to me that it's a bit of both.

Interesting.Do you think that...Let's talk your experience of politicians.You've been there for a long time.Andy Burnham, you're right, is better at politics than Keir Starmer, but then I think my cup.was probably better at politics than Keir Starmer.

But I read a criticism from a left -wing presenter the other day that said, that Kyle and talk, all they'll do, instead of being positive about Andy Burnham, will dig and dig.And all they'll say is, how's he going to pay for it?That is absolutely our responsibility, tis it not?Because there will be millions of people, Jacob, who are not invested in politics like we are, who will see those little sweets, as you suggest they be described.and we'll go, oh, fantastic.The truth of the matter is, if you look at this death tax thing that we're talking about this morning, it is frightening.

The Labour government always uses everybody else's money, mainly ours, until they run out, don't they?

You're absolutely right, and the death tax is a terrible idea, and desperately unfair, that if a death tax were to come in tomorrow, there will be people who have paid for their own care, possibly sold their house to pay for their care, who will then find, of the remnants, the government, the state takes 10%.That is outrageous, it's monstrous, and it's taxed money that people would be having stolen from them.I'm against death duties full stop, I think they should be abolished, but a further death tax is not the answer to social care.

How would you, I mean I have a really strong view on this, how would you finance the things that need financing?Defence, social care, all sorts of things, but those two spring to mind.I mean to me it's really simple, but how would you finance those, Jacob?

Well you need two things to ensure we can finance what we need to do.The first and the most important is to cut expenditure.In this country we almost never pay more than 38 % of GDP in tax, but when we get to that level People change their arrangements, they leave the country.See what's happened in Scotland, where they put the top rate up and the income from it comes down.So 38 % is about the limit of income for a government.We're currently spending about 45%.

We cannot carry on with that 7 % in -built deficit.That needs to be cut.The second thing you have to do is to grow the economy.And to grow the economy, you need, eventually, tax cuts.But we can't afford those yet.So what we need to do now is get rid of mad regulations and the utterly lunatic net zero policy that is holding us back.

And presumably also, I mean I agree with that entirely, is also welfare and I think this is where we're going to find out the real depth of Andy Burnham because At £333 billion for the first time in our history, that bill, and you know this, outweighs what the Exchequer gets back from tax for people that work, which is a message I think is appalling.Now, I reckon Burnham's got political capital because I think the 400 MPs that parachuted him in causing the demise of Starmer know that he's probably their last chance.Has he got in your mind a strong enough will or personalityto stand in front of the Parliamentary Labour Party and say, for the first time in Labour's history, we are going to do something about the people who are gaming this system to the detriment of our population who go to work?Because there is a massive, massive saving, isn't there?

Yes, the £330 billion includes, of course, pensions, and they're slightly different.But when I was saying we need to cut expenditure, the main target for cutting expenditure has to be welfare.It's become unaffordable.For years we've been keeping expenditure under control at the edges on the small parts of government expenditure.We cannot go on endlessly giving more money to welfare and more money to the National Health Service.Those are simply not affordable and if we carry on like this we will simply not have the economic strength to do it and we will have emergency cuts as we did in the 1970s, again under a Labour government.

I don't understand the other thing that is, to me, glaringly obvious.Foreign aid, 11 billion.I mean, you know, we've always been a country that does the right thing, but are we not right now in a position where we should prioritise our own people?

Yes, of course we should.I've never been in favour of foreign aid.The old line about it taking money from poor people in rich countries to give it to rich people in poor countries has always seemed to me to be quite opposite.I think you want to invest rather than spend and have a budget for emergency support for countries that suffer earthquakes or fires or natural disasters, not to be spooning money out to countries that then are very unhelpful towards you.

I couldn't agree more.Just overall, what do you make of Burnham's first week?Nothing that MPs can argue with him about.He's got a free rein for six weeks.I'm not sure how that will go down with the Chancellor, but it's all worked out rather well for him, hasn't it, at this moment in time?

Well, it's like candy floss, which a lot of people will be having at Village Fates at this time of year.There's an awful lot of stuff wrapped around the stick, but it's a very little substance and will disappear pretty quickly.

An upgrade from Starmer, but not difficult.Now, I love you in the nicest possible way.There's a couple of things that I want to ask you about.Look at the look on his face.Don't worry, Jacob, it's fine.Andy Burnham this morning has been talking about universities and, you know, how Tony Blair's drive to get half the school leavers to attend university has let down a generation.

I have to say I sort of agree with that, because I think we've got to a point where there are lots of universities too many offering not particularly important things.I need to read this to you.We found out this morning that Bath Spa University, Jacob, can offer you a BA in Contemporary Circus and Physical Performance.The Abertay University, you can do a degree in Ethical Hacking.And my absolute favourite is Heriot -Watt, where you can do a BA in Brewing and Distilling.It is beyond a joke, isn't it, to all these kids to end up with huge debt to get a degree that really isn't going to give them a job.

My caution on this idea that we're going to give people proper technical skills is that governments have been saying that for a really very long time and they don't seem to manage it.So this is one of those things, as always, it's easier said than done.To give Blair some credit, he said he would get 50 % going to university and he achieved it.So Blair was able to do things that he promised, but I agree with you, in hindsight, it wasn't such a good idea.and you want people to be doing what is suitable for them, not an arbitrary government target.

of the Sun today, you'll have read this, the female chaplain, Emma Roberts is 54, she says I look like Andy Burnham, so she's created a TikTok account, I'm Mandy Burnham, which has led me to ask this question all morning, Sir Jacob Rees -Mogg, who have you been told in the past you look like?

We're here on College Green, Abingdon Gardens, and I was once walking back from the Houses of Parliament when I was still an MP.And you'll be shocked by this.Somebody wound down his window and said to me, Peter Mandelson, you've ruined the country.And I must confess, of all the people I could have been compared to, he was very much bottom of my list.

I'm sure he is. I have to say that we've looked back at this, though.You do know that you've been compared in the past to Charles Hawtry, the slender comedy actor.And Walter the Softy.For his roles.And also, Walter the Softy, the famous enemy of Dennis the Menace.

Which I think is absolutely right I I think compared to me those two are heavyweight champions.I wouldn't be surprisedmyself in such a muscular context.But Charles Haughtry, I think, was one of the funniest actors.I loved his appearances in the Carry On films.

May, it's always a pleasure.We love Jacob having you on, and we thank you as ever for your time, and I agree with you.You couldn't have Carry On films now, because they weren't politically correct at all, were they?But we appreciate your time as ever on College Green.The legend that is Sir Jacob Rees -Mogg.