Jacob Rees-Mogg has submitted a typical old-fashioned resignation letter, in a last ditch effort for the so-called honorable member for the 18th century.
The North East Somerset MP wrote his letter, resigning as business secretary, by hand and refused to share it on social media, in stark contrast to printed resignation letters shared on Twitter by other MPs.
Rees-Mogg’s handwriting is so difficult to decipher that Scotland’s National newspaper headlined an article: “We bet you can’t read Jacob Rees-Mogg’s handwritten resignation letter.”
In his characteristically anachronistic style, Rees-Mogg, a devout Catholic, dated the letter “St Crispin’s Day”.
Saint Crispin’s Day is a feast day in the Christian calendar on October 25, named after Saints Crispin and Crispinian, who were tortured and beheaded by the Roman emperor in 286 AD.
Many important battles have been fought on that day throughout history, including the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, immortalized in a St Crispin’s Day speech in Shakespeare’s Henry V.
Rees-Mogg begins his letter by wishing the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, “every success” in his position.
“As you will rightly want your team, I would be grateful if you could convey to the King my resignation as secretary for business, energy and industrial strategy,” Rees-Mogg added.
In Britain’s parliamentary democracy, the monarch, now King Charles III, retains certain prerogative powers, including appointing or dismissing ministers and the prime minister.
Such power is usually exercised only on the advice of ministers and in reality it is the prime minister who hires and fires their cabinet team.
However, Rees-Mogg is well known for standing firm in his interpretation of the finer points of the British constitution.
He famously argued in August 2019 that the decision to advise the Queen to prorogue parliament, weeks before a vote on the final Brexit deal, was “routine”. The advice of then prime minister Boris Johnson was later declared illegal by a unanimous supreme court decision.
