Rees-Mogg: The country is not under threat from Russian bots but from bad government

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused the government of trying to silence people who are dissatisfied with how they are being governed.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “Nobody denies there’s nasty stuff on the internet, that people circulate unpleasantries, but this really is the government deciding that people are rude about it, and therefore it is going to put a stop to it.

“Why do I think that? Well, if you look at the whole speech, Andy Burnham went on about how there were people who weren’t getting opportunities, who weren’t getting the jobs that they wanted, that there were too many neets, and that they were angry, and therefore particularly susceptible to this sort of information.

“What he’s actually doing is blaming the people who are angry about being badly governed for their own irritation with the bad government they’re getting and saying it’s because they’re gulled by Russians and by bots.

“And that seems to me completely unreasonable. The reason people in this country are angry and are fed up is because small boats keep coming. Because immigration got out of control – Yes, when I was in government, for which I must take my share of the blame.

“That taxation has got too high, that welfare has become a lifestyle choice that the government of the country can’t make its mind up on how to defend us.

“People are fed up because they feel there is less opportunity, less ability to get richer than their parents and grandparents had, and that migration is out of control.

“This is making voters up and down the country feel that no one is taking any notice of them, and therefore they are seeking parties who say that they will do something about it.

“Not in this country, far right parties: Bear in mind, as I’m sure you will remember, that Prevent decided that they might think it worthwhile having a look at me as a dangerously right-wing person because of what I had put on Twitter.

“Now I’m as mild and as moderate as you can get; that there’s not any sense of discernment in this approach. It is saying that views that are critical of the current government, views that are put by Conservative politicians, are madly right wing. This is not true.

“We are very lucky in this country that the presenter before me, Nigel Farage, is not beyond the bounds of normal political sense. He is not a far-right figure, and the only people who call him one are ones who have a political agenda against the bad government that we’ve been suffering from being exposed.

“And then you have Burnham. There he is. So important. He’s just seen the President, addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, going where Kennedy and Khrushchev have been before, where Harold Macmillan dominated the stage.

“Putting on his serious voice and saying that the nation is at threat from Russian bots. No, it’s not. It’s at threat from bad government, and people are fed up with it. This will be worse if there’s censorship put on top of it.

“As George Orwell said in 1984, ‘The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.’ That is the command, Mr Burnham wishes to give.”