Patriotic Englishman Jacob Rees-Mogg is giving a speech at 7pm tonight

At 7pm tonight, as the eyes of England turn to the World Cup opener against Tunisia, self-styled patriot Jacob Rees-Mogg is giving a speech.

The hardline Brexiteer and Tory leadership hopeful will be speaking on ‘Brexit and beyond: Britain’s place in the world in the 2020s’ as part of Commons speaker John Bercow’s lecture series at Speaker’s House at Westminster.

Guests are asked to arrive at 6.30pm for a 7pm start – the exact time Harry Kane’s men kick off their World Cup campaign in Volgograd.

Only a man who works on a sundial and really has his finger on the sporting pulse of England would deliver this lecture tonight pic.twitter.com/dyw2QmpzBx

— Torcuil Crichton (@Torcuil) June 18, 2018

It is not known whether Mr Rees-Mogg, who has blasted Remain supporters as unpatriotic, is a fan of what he probably refers to as association football. He has not tweeted about the World Cup, although he did note Somerset’s six-wicket win against Nottinghamshire to take the side top of cricket’s county championship last week.

He has also attacked the Royal Mail’s ban on delivery drivers flying England flags for safety reasons as “boring, petty-fogging, silly, bureaucratic”.

Millions are expected to tune in to the coverage of England v Tunisia on BBC One tonight. Attendance at Mr Rees-Mogg’s lecture is set to include Peter Bone, Bill Cash and a Press Association reporter cursing the way the rota has fallen and following the football on Twitter.