Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg last night called an African country ‘the people’s republic of jam jar or something’ at a packed meeting of the Tory Party conference.
The Conservative MP was referring to the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which was the name of Libya under its late leader Colonel Gaddafi.
He was warning against the perils of a second Brexit referendum – dubbed a ‘people’s vote – and said anything with the title people’s in it has the whiff of totalitarianism.
He said: ‘All the countries who are least interested in their people call themselves “people’s”, don’t they?
‘So the People’s Republic of China? Oh, that’s communist.
‘And the People’s Republic of…jam jar, or something like that, of Libya, was what it was called when Colonel Gaddafi was in charge.’
Leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured last night at the fringe meting) called an African country ‘the people’s republic of jam jar or something’ at a packed meeting of the Tory Party conference
He made the remark while addressing a packed-out fringe meting hosted by Brexit Central at the conference in Birmingham last night.
Around 500 party activists flooded into the hall to listen to Mr Rees-Mogg and several other Tory MPs rail against Theresa May’a Brexit Chequers plan.
But Mr Rees-Mogg has been criticised for making the remark at the meeting – with Labour MPs accusing him of insensitivity.
Alex Sobel, a Labour MP and Remain activist with the Best for Britain group, took aim at the MP for North East Somerset.
He said: ‘This not only shows the same sort of casual racism Boris Johnson has displayed but also a disdain for the rest of the world which would leave us isolated and economically eviscerated if he is allowed his hard Brexit.’
Labour’s shadow business minister Chi Onwurah tweeted a link to the MP’s remarks with the sarcastic comment: ‘It’s their respect for other countries and attention to detail which will be such an asset for the hard Brexiteers as they negotiate trade deals post Brexit.’
Lib Dem frontbencher Christine Jardine told The Daily Mirror: ‘This sort of remark is becoming too common from the Brexiteers, coming as it does in the wake of Boris’s recent burka jibes.
‘Insulting other people is not the way I want my country represented and the public see it for what it is, petty politics.’
Last night’s Brexit Central saw Tory MPs line up to condemn the PM’s plans and demand that she ditch them and strike a looser free trade deal with the bloc instead.
Mr Rees-Mogg branded Chequers a ‘dying duck’ and demanded an upbeat ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ Brexit instead.
Conservative backbenchers warned the PM that they do not want to see her ousted from Number Ten, but warned her that she must chuck her under-fire Brexit plan.
Their comments, at a packed fringe meeting at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham, piles yet more pressure on Mrs May who is facing a Tory revolt on Brexit.
It came after Boris Johnson branded her plan ‘deranged’ and former Brexit Secretary David Davis toured the television studios and fringe events to urge her to ditch it.
Mr Rees-Mogg borrowed the lengthy tongue twister from Mary Poppins to explain the sort of ‘super Canada Brexit’ terms that Britain should demand, adding that ‘it is a word developed by a nanny and nannies are jolly good things’.
He said Chequers is ‘simply remaining under the yoke of the European Union’.
He added: ‘It is a dying duck in a thunderstorm, it is the deadest of dying ducks.’
Mrs May has insisted her Chequers plan is the only viable proposal on the negotiating table and the alternative would be a no deal Brexit.
Jacob Rees-Mogg also called for Theresa May (pictured, today, at the Tory party conference in Birmingham) to ditch her Chequers Brexit plan
But Mr Rees-Mogg said there is ‘nothing to fear’ from crashing out of the EU without a deal and trading on world trade organisation terms as it would mean that Britain would not have to pay a ‘farthing’ of the £40billion Brexit Bill.
He added: ‘And we would be able to immediately get on with trading with the world…we would not have 21 months of vassalage where we have to be told what to do by the European Union and have no say in what was happening.’
In a rallying cry to the 500 or so activists in the hall, the Tory MP added: ‘Making a success of Brexit is easy as long as we hold our nerve.
‘We either leave on supercalifragilisticexpialidocious terms – we want a super Canada Brexit, and to be positive about this.
‘And I can’t be more positive than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – which as you all know is a word developed by a nanny and nannies are jolly good things.
‘If we don’t do that we leave on World Trade terms and then we have a proper, red-blooded Conservative approach to governing that frees the UK from being tied down.’