Last Friday, as part of their weekly political talks, the University Of Nottingham invited Annunziata Rees-Mogg (Jacob Rees-Mogg’s sister) to reveal why she left the Conservative Party in 2019 and in turn joined the Brexit party.
As of 2019, Annunziata is a member of the European Parliament (MEP), and whilst part of the conservative party (1984-2019), she campaigned for England to leave the EU. Her motivation was the return of sovereignty to England, which she claimed David Cameron failed to do whilst he was the Prime Minister.
Rees-Mogg went on to state that the Brexit Party had succeeded in bringing together those from all ranges of the political spectrum in support of a single issue: leaving the EU to gain back our national sovereignty.
After a minor detour through the maze that is the Law and Social Sciences building, Annunziata began by explaining that Brexit had been a divisive issue between supporters of the same party. It was this division that gave an increased momentum to single issue parties including the Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party.
Rees-Mogg then went on to explain the current political divide between politicians and the general public, wherein a larger proportion of politicians voted to remain in the EU compared to the general public. Thus showing the gaps in the political spectrum wherein no Party resides. This therefore leaves a proportion of citizens without a party that truly represented them.
She took questions from the floor, including what the key issues in support of Brexit were. Primarily her reasons being sovereignty – yet, each area of England had their own issues such as fishing rights and immigration, etc. Other questions included whether or not she would still have wanted to leave the EU if David Cameron had managed to get some sovereignty back to England. Her answer was a firm no. In accordance, she was asked whether or not UKIP had been absorbed into the Brexit party. In response to the final question, she called UKIP an extremist party and disagreed with all of their policies except for the ones pertaining to England leaving the EU. This was despite the leader of both parties (Brexit Party and UKIP) being Nigel Farage. Rees-Mogg went on to state that the Brexit Party had succeeded in bringing together those from all ranges of the political spectrum in support of a single issue: leaving the EU to gain back our national sovereignty.
Alex Lovesey
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