A Conservative Member of Parliament lambasted John Kerry, who recently argued that the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union, as "no friend of Britain" and "a sympathizer with terrorists" last week on the floor of the House of Commons.
"The person representing the United States government who has called for us to stay is John Kerry, a former senator, who in the 1980s showed himself to be no friend of the United Kingdom but a sympathiser with the IRA, when he held up a treaty allowing for the deportation of IRA activists from the United States to the United Kingdom, saying that the justice system in Northern Ireland didn't work effectively," said the Right Hon. Jacob Rees-Mogg, who represents North East Somerset in Parliament.
Rees-Mogg, the son of the late Lord Rees-Mogg, a long-time editor of The Times known for his skeptical attitude towards the European Union, is no stranger to candor. Last week he confessed his ignorance of twerking and Kanye West to an interviewer: "I don’t even know if that is a man or a woman," he said of the rapper. He also claimed not to understand the acronym "WTF."
Rees-Mogg, who frequently uses Latin and makes allusions to medieval history and the works of P.G. Wodehouse in his Parliamentary speeches, is sometimes referred to by colleagues as "the honorable member for the early 20th century." He is also known for wearing double-breasted suits and attending the Traditional Latin Mass. He has called for the use of guitars to be banned during Catholic worship.
Rees-Mogg also holds the record for the longest word ever used on the floor of the House of Commons. In a speech in 2012, he encouraged his colleagues to join him in the "floccinaucinihilipilification" of the European Court of Justice.
Before obtaining his current seat in Parliament, Rees-Mogg is reported to have campaigned with his childhood nanny, who currently looks after his own children, in a vintage Bentley. He has claimed that car was a Mercedes.
Rees-Mogg, whose old-fashioned received pronunciation accent and unabashed opposition to abortion and gay marriage have been considered out of step with the modern Conservative Party, has been called Prime Minister David Cameron’s "worst nightmare."
Rees-Mogg and his wife, Helena, announced the birth of their fifth child, Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Rees-Mogg, on February 22.