Jacob Rees-Mogg claims EU referendum was an ‘election’ and is challenged by caller

Rees-Mogg hosted a telephone debate on his LBC show asking people if the 28% of the population that wanted to leave without a deal was “representative of Britain right now”.

Aside from the fact that the poll actually found that 43% actually wanted to stay in the European Union, there were others who called in telling the Tory MP the best way to settle it all was through a second referendum.

“One camp says one figure, and another camp says another figure, so why don’t we just have another referendum now we know the facts so we see what the people decide.

“Everyone bangs on about ‘the people’ but you’re only representing the 17.4 million back in 2016.”

“Did you say ‘only representing 17.4 million people’? That’s a lot of people isn’t it?” asked Rees-Mogg.

“It’s not. It’s not a high proportion of the actual population in the country – 66 million,” responded the caller.

“It’s a majority of people who voted. And all elections run on who turns out to vote,” claimed the Brexiteer.

A frustrated caller pointed out “it’s not an election though, was it? It was an advisory referendum.”

Rees-Mogg, however, insisted it was an election. He told Anthony: “Well a referendum is an election, obviously.”

But the caller would not back down. He replied: “It’s not it’s an opinion poll. If you look up the definition of referendum, it is an election.

“No a referendum is a form of an election. It is not a general election, it’s not an election for parliament,” continued the presenter.

Anthony continued: “It’s not legally binding, though is it?”

But Rees-Mogg would not back down. “It is a vote that the government said would have an effect.”

A beeping sound could then be heard with the Brexiteer claiming that the caller had put the phone down.

“Oh he’s gone. Anthony I’m so sorry. He’s gone off in a huff.”