The Brexit minister has been challenged in the LBC over previous statements that the UK’s exit from the EU would make energy and food bills cheaper. Accused by Brenda of “lying” to the public before the referendum, Rees-Mogg said: “There is global food price inflation that has nothing to do with Brexit.” He added: “The fact that the price of wheat has risen due, in part, to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not something I speculated about in the run-up to Brexit.” Mr Rees-Mogg also argued that post-Brexit trade deals would help reduce the cost of living in the crisis – despite forecasts that food inflation would reach 15% this year. “With the trade agreements we are making – and particularly important ones with Australia and New Zealand – we are removing tariffs on food, footwear and clothing,” he said. “The more free trade agreements we make, the more duties will be deducted.” Opportunities for Brexit added: “These are tariff and non-tariff barriers that are being removed as we make more free trade agreements, and that is fundamentally important. “And this – in a cost of living crisis – becomes even more important, because it helps to improve the cost of living crisis that we are suffering from.” Recent data show that food inflation has risen by 5.3 percent year on year – after several months of price increases – with food industry leaders saying the impact of the crisis in Ukraine has just begun. Brenda, who spoke to LBC, said Mr Rees-Mogg was “so supportive”, adding: “I find it absolutely outrageous that people will suffer from hypothermia; they can not eat and they can not heat their homes. How does he help this simple, struggling man? “ Disputed over whether Chancellor Rishi Sunak had provided enough support to families competing in the spring statement, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “You have to keep government spending under control.” Senior Tori admitted he was in a “very lucky situation” financially – before proposing that he was helping voters make sure they were claiming the right benefits. “My concern is the people who come to the operating room in my constituency … what can be done to help people make sure they are claiming the right benefits – simple things like that,” he said. “There is help, but it is difficult.” Noting that the price of milk increases from 20 p.m. at 54 a.m. At the farm gate, Reese Witherspoon said: “This is great. “There is a real cost of living crisis coming from the farm gate to the end.” Jacob Rees-Mogg tells Andrew Marr that Brexit is “a great success for the country” Mr Rees-Mogg also blamed the EU for the British fisherman’s higher export costs. “The EU is very different from where we left off and they want to make life as difficult as possible,” he said. The top minister, meanwhile, has backed more North Sea gas extraction ahead of the government’s “energy security strategy” – expected to be unveiled on Thursday. “We have to think about extracting every last cubic inch of gas from the North Sea,” he said. “2050 is a long way off. “We are not trying to become a clean zero tomorrow – and we will need fossil fuels in between.” The cabinet minister also said he was “very much in favor of nuclear operation” and described the idea of reopening the fracking sites as “quite an interesting opportunity”. Mr Rees-Mogg also defended his rejection of the partygate controversy as “fluff” in the context of the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis, saying it was “not the most important issue in the world”. The minister told LBC that some coronavirus restrictions imposed during the lockdown were “inhumane”. He also said that the lessons for Covid’s investigation “did not concern the parties” but the strictness of the rules imposed by the government. He acknowledged that people were “unequivocally crossed”, but insisted that Boris Johnson had not misled parliament, implying that the “prime minister” had received “wrong information”. “The prime minister said that he was told that the rules had been followed, but this proves to be wrong and we know that fines have been imposed, but the prime minister can only work with the information given to him.”
