JACOB REES-MOGG slammed Jeremy Hunt for failing to show up to Thursday’s amendment vote that ended up blocking Boris Johnson’s ability to suspend Parliament and force through a no deal Brexit. MPs voted by a majority of 41 to back a measure aimed at preventing Mr Johnson suspending Parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit, with 17 Tories rebelling and dozens more abstaining. The Chancellor, Justice Secretary David Gauke, Business Secretary Greg Clark and International Development Secretary Rory Stewart did not vote, all are expected to be on the backbenches under Mr Johnson and could be a thorn in his side. But Jeremy Hunt failed to turn up at all, claiming that he incorrectly thought he’d been ‘slipped’ - or given permission not to attend.
But caller Stephen rang into Jacob Rees-Mogg’s show “aghast” at what he saw as a deceitful manoeuvre.
He raged: “I’m really aghast about Jeremy Hunt failing to vote in the house and then coming on Twitter with some belloni excuse as to why he forgot to vote.
“And all his advisors also forgot to tell him that she should be putting a vote in.
“He is dragging down the reputation of all MPs.
“And someone like himself, who wants to be prime minister, is now expecting us to fall for that as though we’re complete idiots.”
Mr Rees-Mogg replied: “You raise such a good point.
“Because I know how this system works and the one thing that isn’t handled by your advisors is the message from the whips when you’ve got to turn up and vote.
“That goes directly through to every members’ mobile telephone.
“And it’s quite clear; either you’re slipped or you’re not.
“And I was doing a lot of trips for Boris during the campaign to address local Conservative groups.
“And therefore I needed a lot of slips so that I was free to do this.
“And that was absolutely clear when I was slipped and when I wasn’t.
“And I had to be back for certain key votes.
“The same applies for Jeremy Hunt. It’s very hard over a really important vote to get this wrong.
“Of course you can miss an unimportant vote and that happens to everybody from time to time.
“But a really important vote… surely he knew?
“And I think the whips themselves were quite surprised that he didn’t turn up from what I hear.”
Mr Hunt tweeted an apology on Thursday: "I missed votes today because I thought I was slipped and it turns out I was not. Apologies to my colleagues & Whips Office. My position is that parliament should NOT restrict the hands of an incoming government in this way & I remain opposed to how parliament voted."
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