Jacob Rees-Mogg suggests the government’s voter I.D. move was ‘failed gerrymandering’ – 15 spoilt ballots
As if the ERG’s stranglehold on policy weren’t enough of a headache for the Tory Party, there’s now also a National Conservatism movement – and they’ve just had a conference with talks by several MPs and right-wing commentators.
Welcome to the National
Conservatism conference – aka NatCon London 2023. Despite speakers including Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg, this isn’t a Tory party event. It’s a moveable annual gathering of low tax populist nationalism run by a US think tank. pic.twitter.com/sj93gyHKRw— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) May 15, 2023
Suella Braverman will address the 'National Conservatism' conference later.
She will join speakers who:
– Want abortion to be banned
– Say conditions should be made "harder" for Muslims
– Accuse Sunak of not sharing British culture, due to his faithhttps://t.co/RmzXVeFXAb— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) May 15, 2023
Cabinet Ministers aren’t merely attending this conference of climate deniers – they’re keynote speakers. Ministerial links to #NatCon wipe away any shred of Govt's climate credibility. Time to kick fossil fuel interests out of politics once and for all.https://t.co/JqCR0SVrdh
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) May 15, 2023
The signs, *always* think about the signs pic.twitter.com/jQzGYyrwmU
— Ben Kentish (@BenKentish) May 15, 2023
During his own speech, Jacob Rees-Mogg addressed rumblings about Labour planning to bring in votes for overseas-born residents of the UK, as well as 16 and 17-year-olds.
Jacob Rees-Mogg: “Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding that their clever scheme comes back to bite them. As we found by insisting on voter ID”
Sums up the majority of Tory ideas: “end up finding that their clever scheme comes back to bite them” pic.twitter.com/nsGAWQf4Co
— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) May 15, 2023
Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding that their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as, dare I say, we found by insisting on voter ID for election.
And we found that people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they, by and large, voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters.
Gerrymandering refers to moving the boundaries of wards or constituencies to provide an unfair advantage to one party in an election, so voter I.D. wasn’t quite that.
What Rees-Mogg appears to be alleging against his own party is voter suppression. It’s an interesting claim from someone who was very much part of pushing through the policy.
So not only did @Jacob_Rees_Mogg vote for a measure that he knew was gerrymandering, he actually argued for it in Parliament when he knew it would disenfranchise voters:
"It is only reasonable to ask people to turn up with their photographic identification".
(13 May 2021) https://t.co/s9Y1Lp7Vxu pic.twitter.com/OyFVS8MxZm
— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) May 15, 2023
James O’Brien reflected on how such an admission might once have carried more consequences. Or any consequences.
'That would’ve mattered once. It might even have been career-ending.'@mrjamesob reacts to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ‘admission’ that the introduction of Voter ID was a plan to ‘deliberately suppress votes’. pic.twitter.com/vvwo80qqWz
— LBC (@LBC) May 15, 2023
Nobody was surprised to hear that the voter I.D. policy had been intended to swing votes towards the Tories – they were just surprised to hear Rees-Mogg say the quiet part out loud.
1.
Gerrymandering is a criminal act
Shirley Porter, Tory leader of Westminster Cncl was fined £36.1m.In 80s in marginal wards, council was moving homeless into condemned accommodation & selling off council homes to those likely to vote Tory
Sound familiar?https://t.co/kRQoOrrC33
— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) May 15, 2023
2.
Jacob Rees-Mogg confirming that he’s not the brightest pic.twitter.com/ESQ5eIKlPh
— Brexitshambles (@brexit_sham) May 15, 2023
3.
“Yeah, we tried to burgle the house but then we tripped over our own shoelaces and got our dicks caught in the mangle…” pic.twitter.com/14skMAvbBR
— Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) May 15, 2023
4.
".. now admit that your own government policy was gerrymandering!" pic.twitter.com/xaAsBUltmC
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) May 15, 2023
5.
BREAKING: Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted that voter ID laws were "gerrymandering", but he regrets this because it made it harder for conservatives to vote. I'm not even making this up x
— Laura Kuenssberg beyond parody (@LKTranslator) May 15, 2023
6.
We do t drop jaws any more… we just shrug and carry on sleep walking towards voter suppression.. https://t.co/uahHodAdB4
— Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 (@DeborahMeaden) May 15, 2023
7.
Note that Jacob Rees-Mogg does not appear to regret the Voter ID “gerrymandering” on grounds that it was gerrymandering & undemocratic…
…but rather because it backfired and hurt his own party’s voter base.
He has the virtues of a crook.
— Dr Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) May 15, 2023
8.
Tories accusing Labour of trying to 'rig' elections at the same time that one of their own MPs openly admits the Voter ID changes were entirely about 'gerrymandering' is quite the brazen flex
— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) May 15, 2023
9.
And there we have it, from a man who was a member of the government as the law was being passed.
This has nothing to do with making our elections safer and everything to do with the Tories making it harder for people to vote. https://t.co/AXCSCavn0m
— Chris Curtis (@chriscurtis94) May 15, 2023
10.
I am so looking forward to the inevitable day that Liz Truss attacks the government for crashing the economy and sending interest rates spiking https://t.co/c9rdqsnRAN
— Jonn Elledge (@JonnElledge) May 15, 2023
11.
There was a time when a former Cabinet Minister openly admitting gerrymandering would have been enough to bring down a government.
Not now it seems.
But surely, if nothing else, this pernicious voter ID law now needs to be repealed? 🤷🏻♂️
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) May 15, 2023
12.
Rees-Mogg is facing political oblivion and sees himself as being in power in some form. If it means torpedoing his own party to do it, then he'll happily do it.
— Sir Jack Caramac 💙 🇺🇦 (@JCaramac) May 15, 2023
13.
This is astonishing:
Jacob Rees-Mogg admitting that his own Tory government committed gerrymandering – a fancy way of saying trying to rig an election!
Tories normally do it by changing constituency boundaries but this time did it via voter suppression via compulsory ID https://t.co/c74b3rCi3U pic.twitter.com/Yd22F7y3Cl
— Will Black 🍓 (@WillBlackWriter) May 15, 2023
14.
Don’t want to go over the top, but this is absolutely jaw-dropping. Someone who was in the cabinet when legislation on voter ID was agreed and went through parliament acknowledges it WAS an attempt to gerrymander the elections https://t.co/onD8iPUsJO
— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) May 15, 2023
15.
This is a smoking gun from Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was a senior member of the Government that first came up with Voter ID. https://t.co/mjlNauGx2o
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) May 15, 2023
Josiah Mortimer had this sarcastic nugget to add.
I am sure the Daily Mail's front page tomorrow will be raging against Jacob Rees-Mogg's admission that voter ID was meant to rig the election in the party's favour https://t.co/IzvgYCgrY4 pic.twitter.com/XKtgcXSJLo
— Josiah Mortimer (@josiahmortimer) May 15, 2023
Let’s just check …
Tuesday's Mail: "Gove's blast at Starmer bid to 'rig' elections" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/BmzvFBxGJC pic.twitter.com/FsOPQaVqVo
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 15, 2023
What a shocker.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg was gloriously owned on his GB News show and it’s 9 minutes fabulously well spent
Image Screengrab, @Parody_PM