ANALYSIS: How Brexit has stalled Jacob's Moggmentum
3 min read
Hands up if you can remember Moggmentum.
The selfies, the cheering crowds, the excitable leadership chatter and the self-deprecating non-denials. Jacob Rees-Mogg was the Tories' Jeremy Corbyn on his way to Number 10.
You don't hear so much of that these days, and with very good reason. Because despite being one of its main proponents, Brexit has also served to expose the political shortcomings of the MP for North-East Somerset.
There have been many Mogg mis-steps throughout the Brexit process - accusing the Treasury of "fiddling the figures" to make the case against Brexit springs to mind - but they have increased in number as 29 March approaches and the pressure on all sides mounts.
Calling a press conference outside Parliament to announce that he was submitting a letter of no-confidence in the Prime Minister was an exercise in hubris, not helped by the fact that the expected avalanche of colleagues following him over the top never materialised.
Then, when the confidence vote finally happened some weeks later and Theresa May won, Rees-Mogg emerged to declare that she should still go Buckingham Palace and hand in her resignation.
But just days later, he stood up in the Commons and declared: "I congratulate the Prime Minister on winning the confidence of the Conservatives in this House last week and assure her that she therefore commands my confidence too."
Rees-Mogg's erratic behaviour continued last week when he suggested the Queen would have to step in and shut down Parliament if MPs voted to delay Brexit.
Still with Her Majesty, he then stated that her decision to get involved in the Brexit debate by calling on voters to find "common ground" was a put-up job by Number 10.
But perhaps the clearest indication that Rees-Mogg's influence is on the wane came this week, after his European Research Group met twice to consider how they would vote on the various Brexit amendments.
Emerging from the first meeting on Monday evening, he was his usual, well-mannered self, solemnly intoning that there was no way they could support the Brady amendment calling for the Irish backstop to be replaced by "alternative arrangements". It was too vague, he insisted, and only an amendment by the Government itself making clear that the backstop must go would cut the mustard.
Fast-forward 24 hours and, despite a government amendment not being forthcoming, the ERG were singing a very different tune. Significantly, the change of heart was announced by its vice-chair Steve Baker rather than Rees-Mogg. He said: "A vote for the Brady amendment is a vote to see if the PM can land a deal that will work."
To cap off the volte-face, Rees-Mogg then trooped through the division lobbies to vote for the amendment he had roundly trashed the night before.
There is no doubt that he remains popular with the Tory grassroots, but it is equally true that, for now at least, the Moggmentum has stalled.
