Jacob Rees-Mogg Taken To School By Farmer Angry At Brexit

Jacob Rees-Mogg was given a rude awakening on his GB News show after a farmer disputed his claims Brexit has been good news for British agriculture.

To mark the fourth anniversary of the UK officially leaving the European Union, the Tory MP said on X he wouid be “discussing the great benefits of Brexit” on his programme.

But Rees-Mogg, a former minister, appeared caught off-guard by his guest, farmer David Catt, whose views did not exactly align.

To open, Rees-Mogg asked Catt if he would be “joining me in celebrating the four years since we departed from the EU?”

Catt replied: “No. None whatsoever. It hasn’t benefited British agriculture one iota.”

He went on: “It’s destroyed our ability to export to the EU. We had built massive trade with beef, sheep, lamb, fish, dairy products which now we’re not allowed to sell, we can’t sell to the EU because of the red tape.”

(Watch interview below)

The full four-minute interview saw Rees-Mogg try to rebuff the farmer’s pessimism, only for Catt to repeat how quitting the bloc has been bad for business.

Catt explained labour shortages caused by Brexit mean “agriculture and farming is falling off a cliff in Kent here”, adding: “The Garden of England, where I am, apple trees are being grubbed at a far faster rate than ever before.”

When he added farmers are trying to make a go of the fledgling wine-growing industry, Rees-Mogg seized on that as a sign of a “a real opportunity that we have that we couldn’t have in the EU”. But Catt replied: “No businessman puts a barrier between itself and its biggest customer. It just does not happen.”

When Rees-Mogg argued the US was Britain’s biggest customer, not the EU, Catt replied: “Not for food stuffs.”

The consensus on X was that Rees-Mogg had a bit of a nightmare.