A TOP Tory MP has extended a welcome "with open arms" to the leader of the Labour party into the Conservatives.
In an interview with GB News, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg compared recent comments by Sir Keir Starmer that praised Margaret Thatcher to those of a Tory minister launching a leadership bid
The UK Labour leader came under fire over a Sunday Telegraph column in which he said Thatcher “sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
Thatcher – who died in 2013 – presided over a privatisation agenda during her time in Downing Street in the 1980s which saw the decline of coal mining and steelworks industries in Scotland.
Starmer’s comments have been condemned by First Minister Humza Yousaf and defended by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Rees-Mogg described the comments as “vintage Farage” adding: “As a Tory member, I would like to extend a welcome to the leader of the opposition with open arms.”
He used recent comments by Rishi Sunak on his open door policy for members, such as Nigel Farage, to return to the party as a transition onto Starmer.
“The more pressing question is not whether Nigel Farage will join the Tory Party, but whether Keir Starmer is planning to defect and launch a Tory leadership bid,” he told GB News.
A Labour spokesman said: “What Jacob Rees-Mogg knows is that the travel is all in the opposite direction with former Tory voters backing Keir Starmer’s changed Labour Party to end thirteen years of Tory decline and give Britain its future back.”
Rees-Mogg said: “A man wrote an article for The Telegraph last week entitled ‘Voters have been betrayed on Brexit and Immigration'.
“This reads as if it were vintage Farage. The man in question went on to hail Margaret Thatcher, as the leader who dragged Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.
“He then went on to criticise the wasted money, the high debt and the record-high tax burden. He sounds as if he could be a member of the ERG!”
Rees-Mogg added: ““So, who is this man? This great Conservative-sounding figure? Is he a cabinet minister waiting in the wings for a Tory Party leadership bid? One setting out his stall – along with a number of other ministers who seem to be circling.
“He must be among the most ardent of Eurosceptics, a member of the ‘Go for Growth’ movement, a Thatcherite – a Trussite even – a capitalist, a sensible, free market Conservative.
“But – the man I’m referring to is not Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or even me, for that matter.
“I’m of course talking about the leader of the Labour Party – the socialist party – Sir Keir Starmer.”
