Jacob Rees-Mogg has said Nigel Farage has made “a strategic error” in calling a by-election before the report from the parliamentary standards commissioner has come out.
Speaking on GB News he said: “Is Nigel Farage John Wilkes, or is he David Davis?
“John Wilkes, in the middle of the 18th century, fought three by-elections. He was chucked out of the House four times. In the end, they eventually replaced him with somebody else because they didn’t like him.
“David Davis fought a by-election, nobody opposed him, and everybody thought it was a mistake.
“And we’re now looking at Clacton and thinking that we’re going to face a race between Red Rum and possibly one of the donkeys from Weston-super-Mare beach, if the only opponent to Nigel Farage is Count Binface.
“Has this strategy worked? Is it right? Was it an establishment stitch up, or has Nigel overreacted to the first set of serious criticisms that he’s faced recently?
“There is a very reasonable case to be made for an establishment stitch up. I actually said a year ago that I wouldn’t be surprised if Nigel’s collar was felt, that the establishment hates him, it loathes him, it’s frightened of him.
“And as with Donald Trump, and indeed with Ms Le Pen there was a clear intention to make sure that he would fail.
“On the other hand, a simple reading of the guidelines on what should be declared makes somebody like me, who is broadly sympathetic to Nigel, feel that he ought to have declared the donations.
“That they were within the previous year, and there is the catch-all in the rules that says if it seems as if you ought to declare it, you ought to declare it, and he overlooked that.
“But I think he has made a strategic error in calling this by-election now, because it’s before the report has come out. What happens if the report accepts his excuse and says yes, he made an error, but it wasn’t a serious one; nobody minds, move on?
“What if the evidence for this great establishment stitch up turns out not to be there? Then the by-election turns out to be nothing but a vanity exercise. But not facing serious competition, it’s no real re-endorsement of his position.
“And I’ve been looking at the constitutional position of a standards inquiry, a by-election, and the position of a member. So, what is clear?
“An inquiry may continue into different election periods, it may continue over a general election or over a by-election.
“A sanction may be imposed at either stage, either before or after an election, but a sanction issued before an election falls away by the election. So, in 2019 when Keith Vaz got a six-month suspension and there was an election, had he stood, he would have come straight back to the House of Commons.
“It doesn’t override or run over an election period. The inquiry, however, and the consequences of the inquiry can.
“And then you look at what’s being voted upon in Clacton. In Clacton, they are not deciding whether Nigel Farage broke the rules or not, because that hasn’t yet been looked into. They’re deciding whether they like Nigel more than Count Binface, and I hope that they like Nigel more than Count Binface, it would be eccentric for them not to.
“If he had waited until after the inquiry, and it had been a 30-day suspension, and it had engaged the recall process then he’d have been able to say, “This is a stitch up, I’m going back to my people,” and that election would have overridden everything the Commons had decided.
“So it’s a tactical error, it’s the wrong time, and I fear, having watched his performance earlier, it’s done out of anger. And my view is that an essential part of politics is self-control; politicians ought never to get angry.”
