Rees-Mogg to Why I'd love become a reality TV star

The pipeline from suspect politician to media personality for hire is well established in this country, writes Helen Coffey

- Helen Coffey

One of the particular joys on election results day was seeing certain MPs lose their seats. I’m not normally one for schadenfreude, but watching former PM Liz “Oops I Seem To Have Tanked The Economy” Truss ousted from her South West Norfolk constituency was an undeniably pleasurable experience. As was Grant “Remember That Time I Devised A Nonsensical Travel Traffic Light System During A Pandemic?” Shapps’s fall from grace. As was Therese “Just Eat Turnips” Coffey getting the boot.

But perhaps the sweetest of all was Sir Jacob “Excuse Me While I Have A Nap In The Middle Of A Crucial House Of Commons Debate” Rees-Mogg taking a battering when Labour candidate Dan Norris swept in to garner 5,000 more votes than the Tory candidate.

Celebrations were short-lived, however. If, like me, you naively assumed that by voting Rees-Mogg out of power we had voted him out of our lives, think again. The famously upper-class Etonian, known for his language and aesthetics reminiscent of an 18th-century workhouse owner, is about to embark upon a well-trodden career path for a certain brand of “quirky” failed politician: reality telly. Yes, he’s all set to monetise his old-timey “posh boy” schtick, with talks of a fly-on-the-wall documentary with Discovery+ well under way.

The Independent’s own South West reporter, Alex Ross, got a first-hand, up-close-and-personal look at the possible coming doc a few weeks ago, when Rees-Mogg turned up on the campaign trail with a full camera crew in tow. Although tightlipped about what filming was for, the team followed him doorknocking around a housing estate on the edge of Bristol, had plans to shoot at his house, and even caused an uproar by filming him with his family at church, upstaging a group of children who were receiving their First Holy Communion.