Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that a general election should be called if the Labour Party changes leader.
He said on GB News: “In 1905, death by a thousand cuts was abolished as a form of capital punishment in Imperial China, but it seems to be brought back to Downing Street, specifically to be applied to Sir Keir Starmer.
“His agony goes on. It’s obvious to all of us that he can’t last but day after day, a little bit more of him is cut away. So what happens next? Do we get Angela Rayner? Do we get, I doubt it, Wes Streeting or Shabana Mahmood? Do we get, quite likely I think, Ed Miliband?
“But whatever we get, we should have a general election, because in the modern political world, people vote for a party leader and a party and only then for the individual candidate.
“Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, we have moved to an increasingly presidential system, and people vote for a leader, and that leader should not just be hauled out of office by a small cabal.
“It should be up to the voters to decide, and if that leader loses the confidence of the House of Commons and of the cabinet, then a new leader should go straight away to a general election.
“I’ve been saying this for years. It wasn’t something that I thought applied to Labour, but to the Conservatives. I thought we should have done it when Boris was forced out. It is the right of voters to choose the Prime Minister.
“That’s become increasingly clear in our political system, really, at least since Margaret Thatcher, and probably you could take it back as far as Lloyd George and then we start talking about the coupon election.
“So what is the message of the monologue today? It’s: I don’t think Starmer will last. I don’t know who will take over, or at least not for certain, but whoever it is should face you, the voters, not just assume the reins of power as if by divine right.”
