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Rees-Mogg lined up for housing role if Truss wins leadership race
Jacob Rees-Mogg is reportedly being lined up as secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities should Liz Truss win the Conservative Party leadership race and become prime minister.
Reports in The Times on Monday suggested that Mr Rees-Mogg will form part of a cabinet for Ms Truss as levelling-up secretary, which traditionally includes the housing brief, taking over from incumbent Greg Clark.
Michael Gove, who held the job before Mr Clark, announced over the weekend that he is stepping down from frontline politics entirely. He used a column in The Times to endorse Rishi Sunak for the next prime minister and warned that Ms Truss’ plans for the country were a “holiday from reality”.
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Mr Rees-Mogg is the MP for North East Somerset and does not have a track record of speaking on housing issues.
But a search of Hansard records through politics transparency website TheyWorkForYou showed that he consistently voted for charging a market rent to high earners renting a council home and consistently voted for phasing out secure tenancies for life.
He has also always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits and voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices, as well as supported the so-called ‘bedroom tax’.
The outcome of Conservative Party members’ vote for the new prime minister is expected to be announced two weeks today, on Monday 5 September.
Ms Truss has previously promised to cut red tape for housebuilding, while also scrapping the “Stalinist housing targets” previously introduced by the Conservative government.
