GB News interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg

Rupert Lowe, MP for Great Yarmouth, Leader of Restore Britain

Video: YouTube: GB News (official channel). Retrieved 6 Oct 2026.

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Only 8 rated questions; a transcript needs 15 for a number. Claims that held up: 56% of 8 checked (Bluff 21.9 of 50). Its claims still count towards the overall score.

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The words of Rupert Lowe. Transcript from the video's captions, fetched on 2026-10-06; not an official record. Captions do not say who is speaking: Polifiles assigned each turn by reading the captions, without checking the audio. GB News' upload of a 13-minute cut of Jacob Rees-Mogg's interview with Lowe (the full hour is a separate upload), 23 Apr 2026; captions fetched. Turns assigned by reading the captions: the presenter's opening summary, an ExpressVPN advert read mid-interview and the closing government statement are left out, and several captions run speakers together, so the boundaries are read from the sense. Sent by Samuel (6 Oct 2026). A short stretch about the Tories' 80-seat majority is left unassigned because the captions run both speakers together. Trimmed: starts at "Well, I'm delighted to welcome Rupert Lowe". Questions are shown in grey boxes. Tap a marked sentence to see the label and its sources. Other speakers' full contributions are in the video.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Tell me, what is Restore's view of the current political situation? The Prime Minister fighting for his political life, the Mandelson scandal, and a civil service that could possibly be doing the right thing or one that's utterly out of control. Where Where is Restore on that?

Well, first of all, Jacob, can I just say uh what a pleasure it is to be back on GB News. It's been a long time. I've almost forgotten how to spell it. So, um I'm delighted that you've invited me on. It's very good of you.

Um So, the answer to that question is I think we've got a a basically a Prime Minister who, in my view, is economical with the truth. I think, let's talk about Mandelson. On the Mandelson issue, I spoke against the appointment of Mandelson at the time. Donald Trump described him as a He was rude about Donald Trump. So, on the face of it, at the time, it was the most extraordinary appointment, and one which didn't make any any logical common sense.

Now, it appears that the appointment, listening to Ollie Robbins yesterday, I wasn't in the chamber on Monday. We voted to bring him back on Tuesday, cuz we weren't happy with the answers he gave. Uh so, I think he's been dealing, as I say, in half-truths, uh in half-lies, whichever you want to define them as, in in half-falsehoods, probably falsehoods. And Ollie Robbins, I think, made it quite clear yesterday that actually that the Prime Minister's office had made the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson and and and what the civil servants were required to do is to find a way to deliver that appointment even though he'd failed his uh his vetting. You see So so I I think on the Mandelson issue it's more of the same.

I mean, I blame Blair, Brown, Campbell, Mandelson, and Derry Irvine for the beginning of the of the undermining of of the British constitution with all the various reforms they did from the Human Rights Act to the you know, creation of the Supreme Court to the Equalities Act, all the things that they did that I think had long-lasting damaging consequences for the way in which we're governed. And it's probably part of the reason why we've ended up with a human rights lawyer like Keir Starmer who I think uh will meet himself coming around the corner one day. So, I don't I don't like him. I don't respect him. I think he's a very poor Prime Minister.

Uh if I was forced to vote on whether he should resign, I would vote for him to resign. But half of me says actually leaving him there as a lame duck is probably better for the other parties in terms of the British public becoming tired of of the Labour Party and tired of the offering which he's which he's giving giving the Chagos Islands away, all of the things that are completely illogical. So, I think to your point there, I I wasn't in the chamber. If I'm forced to vote on it, I would vote I would support a vote of no confidence.

AnsweredAsked for Restore's view of the Prime Minister, the Mandelson affair and the civil service; gives it, and says he would back a vote of no confidence.Our model rated thisNot yet reviewed by a person

I think a lot's more than 8%. of a lot more than 8% of people. We were stopped by how many people on the way here? Yeah, yeah, but

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Three or four people looked at honestly This was a poll of 2,200 people. And your name recognition has actually gone down in the last year. There's obviously a margin of error. That's fine.

Well, Well, let's let's let's let's see, Jacob. Now, I think that's that's not right.

AnsweredOn review, rated Answered (was Partly answered: Asked about a poll putting his name recognition below the presenter's; says the poll is wrong and does not say what recognition he has.)Our model rated thisCorrected by a person, 8 Oct 2026

Jacob Rees-Mogg

Okay, but Nigel has taken 30 years on the public stage to get to the point where his party is sometimes at 30% in the polls. How credible at 30% in the polls. It no longer is. how credible is it to go from nothing, no name recognition, no real public profile, one MP on his own, to winning an election? Don't you need to be working with the Conservative Party, as you are on the public accounts

Maybe I'm deluding myself, Jacob, but I'm going to continue to delude myself and I'm going to continue to build my party cuz I don't think those that survey is correct. I don't know who they who they who they interviewed and who they talked to, but our polling indicates that we are polling somewhere between 8 and 10%. None of the existing polls are naming us yet. So, I don't think that is consistent with what you're asking me with regard to that one which I think is a rogue poll.

Partly answeredAsked how a party with little profile can win; answers about the poll and its method, then about supporter numbers, not about winning seats.Our model rated thisNot yet reviewed by a person

Jacob Rees-Mogg

But diluting yourself really matters because if you make it more likely in 2029 that we get a coalition of possibly Angela Rayner, Zack Polanski, and whoever the SNP leader is, that is disastrous for the country. This isn't a game. This is really serious.

I do know that and I and I can tell you reassuringly that a lot of the people who are joining us and we now have 131,000 signed-up supporters. Now, ours are real supporters. I call the Reform membership the Hotel California membership because it's easy to sign up. It's less easy to check check in. It's less easy to check out.

but but the important point here is that from the people we're seeing joining up, the exciting thing is that a lot of them have not been involved in British politics for 25 or 30 years. So, we are offering them an opportunity to join a party which actually I think is reflective of what they want and what they think. Now, they haven't been offered that. Neither have they been offered it verbally, nor have they hands actually shown that they're going to deliver that. Now, we have as you say, not only said what we're going to do and we've got a lot more research coming.

We've got research coming on border control. We've got research coming. I'm doing a big economic paper. I'm doing a big energy paper. We're doing We're doing a paper on IHT.

We've said we'll we'll we'll scrap IHT. It's it's a very very small razor of tax. Ultimately, we've we're doing a paper on almost, you know, raising the VAT threshold, all the things we're going to do to release honest people and allow them to pursue their lives unfettered by a nanny state which has become if you like a burden on the back of productive Britain.

AnsweredOn review, rated Answered (was Partly answered: Asked about splitting the right-wing vote and a left-wing coalition in 2029; replies with supporter numbers and policy papers, not the risk of a split.)Our model rated thisCorrected by a person, 8 Oct 2026

So so we're bringing in new voters, Jacob. We're not necessarily dragging voters from Tories or indeed from from Reform. We are bringing some and we had a defection yesterday in South Cornwall of a of a Reform candidate, a very good man called Roger Town who joined us, uh deputy leader of the council down there, shares our view, businessman, got very frustrated with the way in which Reform is dealing with it.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

in if you bring in if you bring in new voters, that still doesn't get you to winning majority. It still leads to the same problem of the right split.

It increases the common sense vote, not diminishing it.

AnsweredOn review, rated Answered (was Partly answered: Asked whether new voters still leave the right split; says it 'increases the common sense vote', without saying how that wins seats.)Our model rated thisCorrected by a person, 8 Oct 2026

Jacob Rees-Mogg

But it doesn't work like that in a first-past-the-post system. There isn't a common sense vote. There's a vote for Reform, there's a vote for Restore, there's a vote for the Tories. If the three of them split the vote, we get a left-wing government.

Well, it depends how new vote many new voters you bring in. As you know, Keir Starmer won his majority on a 35% share of the vote. That's

AnsweredAsked how a split vote works under first past the post; answers that it depends on how many new voters join, with the 2024 Labour share as a comparison.Our model rated thisNot yet reviewed by a person

Jacob Rees-Mogg

That's right. But if you take the turnout of the last election was just under 70%. It had fallen off the actually 2019 was 70%. There's a lot of people who haven't voted. 30% If you got all of those 30% vote, which is inconceivable because even in the 1950s we were only getting up to an 80% voter level, but let's say you do, you're still not necessarily even coming first.

Well, I I think

So you're So you're you're you're you're you're I think even if you look at if you look at your argument, it's quite a recidivist argument. What you're saying is you shouldn't uh make your own offering which you think the people want because you might cause a problem to the existing parties you've let them down.

Partly answeredAsked whether even a full turnout gets him first place; turns to the presenter's argument instead of the arithmetic.Our model rated thisNot yet reviewed by a person

Jacob Rees-Mogg

But Tory Um What I'm trying to get on to is that actually, if you reunite the right it is not a one-nation right. The one-nation rump in the Tory party is now very small. If you speak to Tory members, which I do quite a lot of, the one-nation rump doesn't exist. And that if we can bring that together, we have a real opportunity for victory that can do what both of us want, whereas you flying your own kite actually doesn't do anything, and you won't get what you want. You'll get the precise opposite, which is a continuation of the hard left running this country.

Well, I don't agree with that, Jacob, so I mean, that's your opinion. And I I I'm intending to run as I'm running and doing what I'm doing. We're now We're now actually we we we've sort of very powerful in the air war, which we're arguably the best at that of any anybody in in Parliament. You know, on on on on all of our social media platforms, we are massive, massive. Bigger than most national newspapers by a long way.

Facebook, X, LinkedIn, uh Instagram, uh you know, Tik Tok, the whole lot. We cover the whole the whole spectrum. But, not everybody is on social media. So, what's now happened in since we launched the party in February, we've now got over 400 branches up and running. And if you came and saw the level of enthusiasm of real people fighting for local democracy, you you would be astounded.

AnsweredOn review, rated Answered (was Partly answered: Asked whether reuniting the right is the only route; disagrees, then describes the party's social media reach and branches.)Our model rated thisCorrected by a person, 8 Oct 2026

I'm not getting in that. Thank you.