Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the Conservatives most prominent politicians to be facing the very real threat of losing their seat at the general election in July 2024. Alex Ross spent the morning with the Tory member for North east Somerset and Hanham on the campaign trail.As Rees-Mogg went from door to door in an affluent area, it wasn't so much his Labour competitor Dan Norris exciting voters but Nigel Farage's Reform UK. Can the Conservatives have any hope with Farage in the picture? Get all your latest election news with The Independent.
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00:00The pictures you have on the wall then, so why Winston, why Boris and yourself?
00:05Because I'm the candidate. Boris went up when he became leader, replacing Theresa May. We'd
00:12always had the leader up, and then Covid came and we've hardly used the office since.
00:16Is there not time to get a picture of Sunak up there?
00:20Well, we will eventually. We'll see how much we need it after the election,
00:26when he's returned comfortably as Prime Minister.
00:28Yes, of course.
00:29Yes, absolutely.
00:32Jacob Rees-Mogg finds himself as one of the most prominent Conservative MPs
00:35under threat of losing their seat in the general election.
00:38As my local MP, I went with him for a morning of campaigning
00:41on the doorsteps of Longwell Green.
00:44How's it been so far?
00:46You enjoying it?
00:47Yeah, yeah. The response on the doorstep is good, the response in the street is good.
00:52It's quite good fun.
00:53The campaign is not difficult because Jacob is well-received and we have plenty of
00:58helpers. They're all experienced, they're all keen, they all know what they're talking about,
01:06and what we have here is enough, any more than this, and we would be struggling to keep it
01:10together. You know, you have to, knocking on doors, you've got to keep people together and
01:14keep record of what's going on. No, I mean, we're having, we're having, if you enjoy this,
01:20then this is fun. This election is fun for us.
01:23But are voters enjoying it? I asked Jacob Rees-Mogg what issues he was meeting on the
01:27doors of constituents.
01:29The issues that come up are immigration comes up again and again, health service comes up,
01:35one person mentioned to me NHS dentists, housing comes up and the, both the green belt and the
01:41difficulty of young people affording housing. So it's a mix of national and local issues,
01:48national issues in the way they affect people locally.
01:51The problem is, Jacob, a lot of people, there are too many people in this, you know, there's too
01:56many, we've got to get on top of it, like, yeah, there's no homes for the young kids, everyone's
02:04being priced out of houses, they need to sort that out. So we're looking after our own first.
02:12The polls are as they are, they're not encouraging for the Conservatives,
02:16but you can't give up in the middle of the campaign. Some people have now voted because
02:20postal votes have begun to go out. But we just have to knock on every door, deliver every leaflet.
02:26The senior figures in the party have to do every press conference and all these sorts of things
02:31have to carry on until election day. And then on the fifth, well, we'll say the opinion polls were
02:36right or they were wrong. If you throw your hat into the ring, you must expect that sometimes
02:39people throw the hat back at you. That's just the way it goes.
02:45Labour's Dan Norris is the favourite for the North East Somerset and Hanlon constituency.
02:49But in this affluent area, only one other party was being mentioned.
02:59So Reform is Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage is a very impressive man. He is a very able,
03:03charismatic figure. But he is at the head of a party that has candidates who are not suitable
03:09to be elected to Parliament. They've got all these nutty candidates who like Hitler.
03:14And people voting Reform know that they're not serious and they're not going to win.
03:19Could you see Nigel Farage as the next leader of the Tory party?
03:23I think it's difficult for him to be the next leader of the Tory party when he's
03:26telling everybody not to vote for it. So that creates a certain, at least, short-term barrier.
03:30I would like to see the right, the broad Conservative family come together. And I
03:34would expect there to be a role for Nigel within that. I would want there to be a role for Nigel.
03:40Despite the poll leads for Labour, I found a realistic but determined Jacob Rees-Mogg
03:45still enjoying the cut and thrust of political campaigning.
03:49But will the personal touch help him keep his seat?
03:52So there is a bit now of persuading. Particularly in this election, there seem to be
04:01many more undecideds than you usually get. But there's also, people actually think the
04:08candidates should go round and knock on their door. And if you do that, it can't be, even if
04:13you're me, you can't put too many people off.