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October 5 2026 - 3:00pm
Former Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed that Tucker Carlson “says increasingly foolish things to get a reaction”.
Speaking at an event at the Conservative Party Conference this afternoon, Rees-Mogg accused the American podcaster of being “absorbed by his own vortex” and called him “ridiculous”. The comments follow a YouTube debate between the two figures, published at the end of last week, in which Carlson labeled Rees-Mogg “Britain’s most pro-war advocate”. The ex-Fox News host also questioned British involvement in the Second World War and argued that the country had “lost self-respect” after defeating Nazi Germany.
During his Q&A appearance today on the Daily T podcast, the former MP for North East Somerset suggested that Carlson had “made a fortune” out of their exchange, adding that “from his point of view that is quite a success, but it makes him look ridiculous.” He went on: “Once we’re into this business of members and clicks and revenues, we’re always thinking, ‘How can this video be better than the one I did last?’” Rees-Mogg said that “the more outlandish you are, the more clicks you get but the less seriously you are taken. Tucker has been absorbed by his own vortex. He now says increasingly foolish, controversial things to get a reaction.” Carlson’s statements, in his view, were “fundamentally silly”.
Last month, Rees-Mogg received criticism from political opponents including Reform UK’s Suella Braverman for a video in which he argued against ethnic conceptions of Englishness and referred to the English as a “mongrel people”. Speaking today, the former Conservative minister said he was “very worried about ethnonationalism”, whose rise in contemporary Britain he characterized as a response to state failure.
He suggested that Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain party fitted this mold, arguing that “because of the ethnonationalism, the Conservatives can’t possibly do a deal with Restore. I think they have put themselves beyond the pale of normal political discourse with that.” He added: “What is the point of voting for Rupert Lowe? It is the least effective type of protest vote that gets you the precise reverse of what you want.”
Rees-Mogg extended his criticisms to Zack Polanski’s Greens, which he described as “a vicious, antisemitic party”. Far from being “a cuddly, friendly party that wants to protect rural England”, he said, under Polanski it had become “a really nasty, unpleasant party”. He added: “I hope they go so far Left they fall into complete irrelevance.”
Writing in UnHerd today, the historian and Winston Churchill biographer Andrew Roberts accused Carlson of “indulg[ing] Hitler apologism” and wanting “to rewrite the Second World War”. At the Conservative Party Conference, Rees-Mogg said: “There is no question in my mind it was good against evil. You can go back to Versailles but that doesn’t excuse the subsequent behavior. The same is true of apologists for Putin — no criticism of Nato and the EU matters when you invade sovereign territory.”
