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The leader of the House of Commons unleashed a backlash on Thursday when he launched an extraordinary attack on the UN agency Unicef.
The senior conservative told the Commons that the charity should “be ashamed of itself” for providing food packages to children in underprivileged areas of London.
He claimed it was a “scandal” that UNICEF was “playing politics” by giving £ 25,000 to fund breakfasts for vulnerable youth in Southwark.
The Labor MP for the area, Neil Coyle, has written to Mr Rees-Mogg accusing him of “lack of shame.”
Coyle wrote: “Charles Dickens used his memories of living in Southwark as inspiration for ‘A Christmas Carol’, which I recommend that you read to observe the striking resemblance he bears to Scrooge before he changed his ways.”
Mr. Coyle volunteered to be the “Spirit of the Christmas Present” and reveal the reasons for Unicef’s intervention by inviting him to a site that supports the children of Southwark.
The Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP added: ‘You could familiarize yourself with the conditions your elections have imposed on constituencies and communities like mine over the past decade and help prevent the gruesome spectacle of suggesting that those who help children in need’ They should be ashamed ‘in the lead up to Christmas.
Labor MP Neil Coyle invited Rees-Mogg to Southwark
/ Daniel Lynch )“The only ones who should be ashamed are those who enforce the poverty that UNICEF is trying to alleviate.”
Lord Patten de Barnes, former chairman of the Conservative Party, described Rees-Mogg’s remarks as “shameful.”
He told Times Radio: “UNICEF is a wonderful organization. It does great good all over the world. You should not report him if he is a British minister because he really considers it necessary to provide aid in this country. ”
Labor MP Sarah Owen said: “Clearly, she has no shame or understanding of the real world.”
Meanwhile, Labor Deputy Director Angela Rayner said: “The only scandal is this rotten and disconnected government that leaves more than 4 million children living in poverty.”
Tahir Ali’s MP called it “embarrassing,” while MP Stephen Doughty added: “Can it sink further?”
Lib Baroness Dem Randerson joked: “The Conservative government is in touch with the people as usual.” Green classmate Jenny Jones described it as “horrible.”
Former Conservative Party Chairman Lord Patten said Rees-Mogg’s comments were “shameful”
)The agency, tasked with providing humanitarian aid to children around the world, is helping the School Food Matters community project deliver more than 20,000 breakfasts during the two-week Christmas break and the February semester.
When the program was raised by Labor MP Zarah Sultana in the Commons on Thursday, Mr Rees-Mogg responded: “I think it is a real scandal that UNICEF should be playing politics this way when it is supposed to. caring for people in the poorest, the most disadvantaged countries in the world, where people go hungry, where there are famines and where there are civil wars.
“And they make cheap political arguments of this kind, giving I think £ 25,000 to a council. It’s a political stunt of the lowest order.”
Mr. Rees-Mogg praised the Government’s work to address child poverty, before adding: “UNICEF should be ashamed of itself.”
Later in the discussion, he accused Unicef of “fooling around” in England.
On Friday, Ms. Sultana shared a photograph from Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” book that she had signed to give to Mr. Rees-Mogg.
She tweeted: “The Speaker encouraged me to show ‘Christmas spirit’ to Jacob Rees-Mogg.
“His comments on Unicef are not worth it, but I thought he would give it a try anyway.”
She wrote inside the book: “Jacob, it seems this was not on Eton’s reading list. Merry Christmas Zarah. “
Anna Kettley, UNICEF UK program director, said the fund was introduced to address the “unprecedented impact” of the pandemic and to reach families in greatest need.
The charity said that before the pandemic broke out, an estimated 2.4 million UK children were already growing up food insecure. In Southwark, there are 15,000 children vulnerable to food poverty.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb was asked about Mr. Rees-Mogg’s comments on LBC this morning and emphasized that the government was “absolutely committed” to the fight against poverty.
He said: “I think that many of the thousands of people who donate money to UNICEF, who thought it was being spent to combat poverty around the world, might be surprised that it is being spent in this country.
“Particularly because we have a government that is committed to ensuring that no child from the poorest families goes hungry. All the work we have done, all the resources we have put into ensuring that every child from the poorest families has a meal.”
When asked if he agreed that it was a “trick”, he replied: “I don’t know what the motivation of UNICEF was. All I know is that, as a government, we are absolutely committed to fighting poverty and hungry children. “
