Stunning wealth, publicity stunts and the battle for relevance: why Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg is the Kris Jenner of British politics

Case in point, earlier this year, Rees-Mogg tweeted a classic: ‘Only liberals drink skimmed milk to go with their faux leather sandals. Full fat, creamy milk will nourish your inner Tory.’ It was a rallying call to the right; a new cause to make them mad at ye olde woke. Yet one media insider exclusively tells Tatler that Rees-Mogg did it for the publicity – and to troll liberals online… How do they know? The source reveals that Jacob doesn’t even drink milk!

‘Jacob speaks like he’s from a different era of Westminster, but he really does understand modern media techniques better than the vast majority of politicians,’ says a political media insider. ‘He’s very good at understanding what will cut through and what is most likely to anger vast swathes of social media platforms in order to get attention.’

‘He is a natural impresario – in a sense, he has been playing a bit of a caricature since he was a teen, and has enough of a sense of humour to know he is perpetually on the verge of self-parody,’ says Will Atkinson of Conservative Home. ‘That makes him both more affable and more down to earth than most politicians I have known, as he doesn’t take himself too seriously. The first time I met Jacob was at a Spectator event in 2019 – perhaps at the London Palladium. At the break, he came down into the auditorium to man the ice cream stand, handing out Häagen-Dazs and selfies to passers-by in equal measure.’

He claims at the premiere that he has never watched Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but their shared principle is undeniable. ‘I’ve always thought that you shouldn’t pretend to be something that you’re not,’ he says. ‘So I don’t think anybody who is interested will be surprised that we live the way that we live, and there’s no hiding it. I wouldn’t want to do that, and I never thought [media] was too intrusive. If you are in public life, you live a public life. I don’t believe in privacy laws. I don’t think that you can take the benefits of public life without taking the drawbacks to it enough. You need to be open about who you are.’

He is also no quitter: a core Kristian philosopy. When the British broadcasters all turned down the idea of the show (an ITV insider scathingly told the Mirror: ‘Jacob Rees-Mogg is a GB News presenter who has set his sights on furthering his media career now that he is no longer a serving member of parliament. Did we want to help with that? I don’t think so.’) he turned to America.