Jacob Rees-Mogg compares Conservative Party conference to 'Kim Jong-un style' rally

Jacob Rees-Mogg is tipped to be the next leader of the Conservative Party
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Patrick Grafton-Green3 October 2017
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Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg compared the Conservative Party conference to a “Kim Jong-un style” rally, claiming party members are not given enough opportunity to speak out.

At a conference fringe event, the prominent backbencher said members are treated “appallingly” and more of a chance to debate and vote on policy is needed.

He said: “It’s now become like an American presidential convention where you’re expected to just turn up and cheer the great and the good.

“It isn’t even American but Kim Jong-un style – if you don’t clap for long enough you’ll get in real trouble.”

Discussing party members, he added: “We treat them appallingly. We expect them to do all the work, deliver all the leaflets, knock on the doors, go out in the rain and then the CPF [the members’ policy-making forum] sends in its reports and they get ignored.

“They come up with brilliant ideas. We used to have system that took the policy ideas from our members seriously.”

He also said his party needs to offer more to younger voters.

He said: “In the last general election we didn’t say anything at all to young people, we pretended they didn’t exist because we thought they wouldn’t vote, and we were wrong,” he said, adding that he was “young once, though I wasn’t very good at it”.

Turning to Brexit, Mr Rees Mogg also said on Tuesday that divorce from the European Union will boost the poorest Brits because the European customs union is "a racket" that has driven up the price of food, clothes and footwear.

The North East Somerset MP said the living standards of the worst-off in the UK had been made worse by the customs union, because it denied businesses from poorer countries access to the British market.

He told a fringe meeting at the Tory Party conference in Manchester: "The customs union is a racket that defends producers in rich countries against producers in poor countries, to the cost of the poorest consumers in the rich countries."

He cited the example of roasting coffee, saying coffee beans were free of duty but roasted coffee beans were not.

He went on: "Why is that? It's to stop poor countries developing an industry of processing foods, so that it can be kept by the Germans and the Italians.

"And who pays for that? The British consumer.

"But these examples are endless. The poorest countries in the world are deprived of access to our market, and this then makes the standard of living of the poorest in our country worse.

"So we have a real opportunity for genuine free trade.

"And what are the biggest tariff areas under the customs union? Food, clothing and footwear.

"Who spends the highest percentage of their income on food, clothing and footwear?"

Putting the question to the audience, he said: "The poor, thank you.

"You're very good hecklers here, you're better quality hecklers than we had in the town hall the other day."

Earlier this week a fringe event featuring Mr Rees-Mogg at Manchester town hall descended into chaos after protesters mobbed the high-profile backbencher.

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