Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has reacted to the policy announcements from the King’s Speech, saying he disagrees with the proposal to remove the need for a warrant to enter a private home.
Speaking on GB News, he said:
“It was the first speech by a King for over 70 years; a great historic occasion in our island’s history.
“And it was done properly, rather splendidly.
“So it’s nice to see something returning to how it should be done and being done properly.
“What about the speech itself? Well, there’s some really good stuff in it. That growth through free trade is one of the real opportunities through deregulation, and less expensive energy.
“The King mentioned the opportunity that we have now we are outside the EU to deregulate and that’s not to make a wild west. It’s simply to make regulations proportionate and sensible so that yes, they maintain safety – and we have a record of that going back into the 19th century of safety for goods and for products and so on. But ensuring that these aren’t simply obstacles or protections for inefficient incumbent company.
“Things that will help the economy grow.
“One of the things that economy grow most is if we have cheap energy. And it’s fascinating if we look at other countries around the world that have cheaper energy than us, how much better their economies have done. This particularly true of the United States.
“Since 1990, the UK has reduced its emissions by 44.1%. In the US by 2.6%. China has increased by 426%. So you could say we’ve done our bit but that the American economy has been much faster growing and recovered from COVID much more because it doesn’t have, as we do, the third highest electricity prices in the world.
“British Steel is not going to be making blast furnace steel. Why? Because of crazy environmental policies that mean if you import the steel from China, it’s China’s emissions if you make domestically, it’s your emissions. This is just really silly.
“One of the things we’ve got to deal with is migration; not the 50,000 coming over illegally that’s being dealt with, there are policies there, but the 600,000 net migrants we had last year.
“We are not succeeding in integrating that number of people and integration is the other side of the coin of migration.
“There’s one thing I don’t agree with: I don’t support the removal of warrants to allow the police to enter, potentially, your house.
“If you’ve just committed a crime, they’re allowed to run after you. That’s been true for a long time. But if they have found in collecting evidence that you may have something in your house, they have to go to a magistrate to get a warrant to go in.
“And this is one of our ancient liberties: You cannot be harried by the police, by the state and you have an assumption of innocence unless there’s some evidence against you.”
