Why has Jacob Rees Mogg become such an iconic political figure?
The charismatic Oxford educated aristocrat Jacob Rees Mogg has fast become one of the most popular British political figures in recent years. His Instagram account has seen unparalleled success and currently stands at a following of 44,000. Such numbers are even more significant when compared to that of his rivals. The entire following of the UK Labour Party reaches a mere 38,300.His followers make up over a third of Jeremy Corbyn’s.
The obvious question therefore is, why?
Why can this man attract such large numbers with his plumy accent, double breasted suits, Latin named children and his classic old age British values. Maybe it is simply just those things, the fact that he is a little bit alternative to the contemporary status quo. He is popular perhaps because he presents an interesting contradiction, despite his old beliefs, disagreeing with gay marriage, taking a hands off approach in the upbringing of his children and his orthodox Catholic Church religious leanings, we find ourselves looking at a new type of politician, someone who is simply not willing to conform to the sanitised and centrist politics of today. It seems the plausible reason for his following, especially amongst millennials is because they have grown up seeing the likes of Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Ed Miliband, compared to Jabob Rees Mogg all of the mentioned guilty parties fall extremely short of the mark with regards to being an interesting and slightly different personality.
Gordon Brown was once hailed by John Humphrys as "the most boring political interviewee". David Cameron hardly provided anything different by being the Eton educated man having studied PPE at Oxford where he found his route into becoming a career politician. Theresa May too was seen by many as a safe choice when it came to the leadership election, having held various shadow cabinet roles and also having previously been the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality. Finally Ed Miliband, the Telegraph once published an article on his personality and it simply opened with a quote “"Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, and bored." (The words of Vyvyan from The Young Ones). Ed Miliband was arguably most well-known for his inability to eat a bacon sandwich, need I say any more? So then, Jacob Rees Mogg compared with the previous politicians is far more interesting and entertaining. As mentioned previously his Instagram has a larger following than the entire UK Labour Party. The digital age in which we live in has provided him the perfect platform to become this youth pop figure. His Instagram populism comes about most likely due to hypocrisy. Everything about him screams to people that he should still be using a typewriter and not even know what a phone is, yet there he is posting about the birth of his 6th child and photos of him with his son out canvassing.
In conclusion his popularity must be put down to his eccentric tendencies, turning out to canvass in 1992 in a Mercedes Benes with his nanny alongside him, the lack of interesting political figures that have graced the UK political stage and finally his utilization of social media, providing him the easy platform to gain fans.
Louis Muston