Jacob Rees-Mogg suffered a not so shock defeat at the General Election earlier this year, as he was defeated in North East Somerset by Labour’s candidate, Dan Norris.
The box office moment was the focus of the first two hour-long episodes of Meet the Rees-Moggs on Discovery+ this week, so I gave in and binged them in one.
The election bits were great. It’s always good to see behind the scenes on campaigns, especially this one: one of the biggest political earthquakes of modern times.
It was also valuable seeing how events were impacting the family - which will take different forms for the friends and relations of MPs across the House of Commons.
The Rees-Moggs’ teenage daughter, Molly, 15, for instance, recounted how, at the height of the Brexit debate, someone at school told her: “My mummy says that your daddy hates foreigners.” “That did upset me a little bit,” she admitted.
His younger sons were amusingly apathetic. When asked what happens at a general election, one said: “Politicians stop lying.”
Another highlight was when someone scrapped ‘posh t***’ on a sign outside Sir Jacob’s mothers’ house. The family had a laugh in their grand mansion’s dining room about how a ‘socialist giant’ must have reached up to do it.
This is where we get to the part of the show that made me feel uncomfortable. Shaun, who is employed by the Rees Moggs to, as his lanky, bespectacled boss put it: make the cider, look after the Bentley - "everything that needs to be done in a busy household", was asked to clean the graffiti off the sign.
Shaun was the antithesis of the "boss man", as he calls Rees-Mogg. In one scene, he had dropped off the family to Boris Johnson’s 60th birthday bash which, irritatingly, cameras were not allowed inside, and then waited for them in a layby, eating a packet of ready salted Walkers crisps and watching the football on his phone.
The way the caretaker refers to his employers is, of course, respectful, but also uncomfortably reverent. It reminds one of how the downstairs crew at Downton Abbey refers to Lord Grantham’s lot.
We also get to hear from Sara as she changes the sheet, apparently just the way that Lady Helena - Sir Jacob’s wife - likes them, a housekeeper. She holds her boss in high regard, and even has a Conservative poster in her garden.
Sara also cleans the Rees Moggs’ private family chapel, which is visited by priests to conduct mass. In addition, there are multiple dining scenes - again, like something ripped straight out of an Edwardian aristocratic drama - during which Sara, Shaun et al are ensuring that everyone is seated correctly and food is presented from the kitchen.
All of this shows in a blindingly obvious reality TV showcase that the life lived by the Rees-Moggs is very different to those of the vast majority of their fellow Britons’. I mean, they actually have a dinner gong, and there is a painting in the house of Lady Helena wearing a tiara.
There was also a very weird admission from Sir Jacob himself, that he "doesn’t move" when sleeping. “I sleep as though I’m in the tomb,” he admitted.
There was at least some self-awareness. Molly, after some consideration at one point told an interviewer: “We are posh.”
