Rees-Mogg Pleads: Don't Let Brexit Put You Off Voting Tory In The Local Elections

29 April 2019, 09:58

Jacob Rees-Mogg pleaded with voters not to let the chaos over Brexit to put them off voting for the Conservatives in this week's local elections.

Conservative peer Lord Hayward predicted that the party are set to lose at least 800 seats in Thurday's vote.

And speaking on LBC, Mr Rees-Mogg admitted he feared the worst. He said: "Lord Hayward is a very distinguished psephologist. He knows what he talks about. He doesn't have any bias in it.

"Sometimes parties say they are going to lose lots and lots of seats, so that they can then say they didn't do as badly as expected - an expectation management business. Lord Hayward isn't in that.

"He's putting it forward as he reads it. I would have thought what he was saying is realistic."

The prominent Brexiter admitted the public had a right to be angry with the party over Brexit, but insisted that should be unrelated to the local elections.

He added: "People, I hope, will think as they go to the polling station, that this is about their council tax, about their bin collection, about their road maintenance. It's not about Brexit.

"I completely understand why people are fed up with the Tories over Brexit. We haven't had any proper leadership, it's been indecisive, weak and we've been led by the nose by the European Union.

"That's not what these elections are about and it would be very sad if some very good councillors lost because of Brexit-related muddle."