Jacob Rees-Mogg has submitted a typically old-fashioned letter of resignation, in a last hurray for the so-called 18th-century honorable member.
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 typed resignation letters shared on Twitter by other MPs.
Rees-Mogg’s handwriting is so difficult to decipher that Scottish newspaper The National headlined an article: “We bet you can’t read Jacob Rees-Mogg’s handwritten resignation letter.”
Letter of resignation from Jacob Rees-Mogg. Photograph: Crown Copyright
In his characteristic anachronistic style, Rees-Mogg, a devout Catholic, dated the letter “St Crispin’s Day”.
Saint Crispin’s Day is a Christian calendar holiday on October 25, named after Saints Crispin and Crispinian, who were tortured and beheaded by the Roman emperor in 286 AD.
Many significant battles have taken place 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 her letter by wishing the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, “every success” in his post.
“As you will rightly want your own team, I would appreciate it if you could convey to the King my resignation as Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Secretary,” Rees-Mogg added.
In Britain’s parliamentary democracy, the monarch, now King Charles III, retains some prerogative powers, including appointing or dismissing ministers and the prime minister.
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This power is only exercised on the advice of ministers, and it is actually the prime minister who hires and fires his cabinet team.
However, Rees-Mogg is known for insistently maintaining his interpretation of the finer points of the British constitution.
In August 2019, he famously argued that the decision to advise the Queen to prorogue parliament, weeks before a vote on the final Brexit deal, was “routine”. Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advice was later declared illegal by a unanimous Supreme Court verdict.