The former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg says his son Peter was sent hate mail at Eton College – as he and his family prepare to open up their opulent home to a Kardashian-style documentary crew.
The ‘Honourable Member for the 18th Century’, as he has been nicknamed, has often found himself the target of vitriol for his anachronistic lifestyle, from lounging across the Commons benches to admitting he has never changed his children’s nappies.
But the ex-North East Somerset representative, 55, who openly admits he enjoys ‘winding people up’, was surprised when one of his sons received hate mail targeting him via Eton College.
Earlier this year, Rees-Mogg told Matt Forde’s Political Party Podcast how son Peter – middle names Theodore Alphege – received hate mail slating his father after he lost his seat of 14 years in the general election.
‘I think to send a piece of hate mail to a 16-year-old because you don’t like his father is an awful thing to do and just fundamentally nasty,’ he said.
‘It is not my son’s fault that I have the political views that I do and it is cowardly, because if you don’t agree with me then you should get in touch with me – put your name on the bottom of it. But to write to a 16-year-old is just loathsome.’
Rees-Mogg has now revealed that he did not pass the hate mail to the police because, he felt, no action would be taken.
He said in a new interview published today: ‘The hate mail did make me think about how aggressive the modern world is to children of politicians.’
It comes at the end of a rough year for the 55-year-old, whose investment firm Somerset Capital was wound up at the end of 2023 after losing its main client, the financial advice firm St James’ Place.
Jacob Rees-Mogg with his son Peter in 2019. The former Tory MP has described how his son received hate mail after he lost his North East Somerset seat in the general election
Rees-Mogg with children Thomas, Mary and Peter, and wife Helena de Chair, as he is made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 2023
Jacob Rees-Mogg and wife Helena in a promotional picture for Meet the Rees-Moggs, which airs on Discovery+ next month
The documentary will depict all aspects of Rees-Mogg’s political life, including when he encounters those who disagree with him (pictured: a confrontation with disability campaigner Dominic Hutchins in October 2021)
The Tory MP is reported to have pocketed at least £7.5m in dividends from the firm since the EU referendum, and received £15,000 a month from the company until 2019, when he became a minister in Boris Johnson’s government.
However, he is now set to embark upon an unlikely new career that began with his appointment as a presenter on GB News last year: Jacob Rees-Mogg is set to become a television superstar.
Along with wife Helena and children Peter, Mary, Thomas, Anselm, Alfred and Sixtus, Rees-Mogg has welcomed the documentary crew behind At Home with the Furys – about boxer Tyson – into his life to show people what he is like behind closed doors.
Meet the Rees-Moggs, as the Discovery+ show is called, aims to dispel some of the ideas the public has likely built up about the veteran MP over the years based on his love of arcane English and the comparisons to the Beano’s Lord Snooty.
The Beano sent a tongue-in-cheek cease and desist letter to the MP in 2018 asking him to stop impersonating Walter, Dennis the Menace’s bespectacled nemesis, because of his ‘insistence to remind others of his father’s successful career’.
There are hopes it could show another side to Rees-Mogg, a career investor who opened a Coutts bank account at 13 and campaigned in a safe Labour seat in Scotland by driving around in a Bentley accompanied by his nanny. (He later insisted it was in fact a Mercedes – the Bentley stayed at home.)
It will depict a period of family life before the election, followed by his defeat to Labour’s Dan Norris – whom he beat in 2010. Rees-Mogg hopes to make a comeback in future.
And, as he has detailed to The Times – the paper his father, William, was once editor for – the programme has helped to top-up his income.
Rees-Mogg became infamous for his lounging on the Commons benches in 2019. He now admits he enjoys ‘winding people up’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, son Peter and wife Helena arrive for the election count on July 5. He would go on to lose the seat
Rees-Mogg lost his seat after 14 years to Labour’s Dan Norris. The Monster Raving Loony Party’s candidate, Barmy Brunch (pictured right), did not win either
Rees-Mogg told The Times he hoped the new documentary series would show how his family is much the same as any other
The show has been produced by the same filming team behind Netflix’s At Home with the Furys, about boxer Tyson Fury and his family
Rees-Mogg got his start in investment banking before pursuing a career in politics (file image from around the year 2000)
After all, the Rees-Moggs need to maintain the Somerset country house of Gournay Court, alongside a London home, as well as the salaries of five domestic staff and six lots of school fees.
Very soon, as the interview published today glibly notes, the Rees-Moggs could well be down to their last million.
And while Peter received unsavoury mail at Eton before the documentary was announced, Jacob – who was knighted last year – says the filming was done with the entire family’s consent and participation.
He told the paper today of the decision to do the programme: ‘If the children had up to now been anonymous then, of course, I would have thought very hard and probably would not have gone ahead.
‘As it was, the surname Rees-Mogg is enough to draw attention to them. Like it or not, they are already recognised.’
The series also depicts other incidents in which the Rees-Moggs are targeted – from being called a ‘w*****’ in the streets of London to having ‘scum’ written on the side of their Land Rover.
Rees-Mogg, who has been accused of using his public image to soften his hard-and-fast opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and action on the environment, has hopes the show might even elicit a sympathetic response from those who have a less than positive view of him.
‘When they find out that what goes on behind the walls of Gournay Court is not so different to their own home, they may pause for thought,’ he said.
That said, he still thinks his cut glass accent and investment fortune has less in common with Britain’s upper classes than people might think.
He said earlier this year as the programme was announced: ‘This everyday story of Somerset folk is fun to film but may be a bit more Fawlty Towers than Downton Abbey.’
