Jacob Rees-Mogg raids the piggy bank, again

Jacob Rees-Mogg raised eyebrows when, between 2018 and 2020, he saw fit to borrow £6m from his company Saliston, which resulted in a parliamentary standards investigation that cleared him of any wrongdoing. Kathryn Stone, the standards commissioner, was able to tell him: “These loans were connected solely to your private and personal life. I am also satisfied that these loans could not reasonably be thought by others to influence your actions, speeches or votes in parliament.”

Mandrake can disclose that Rees-Mogg has now dipped into his Saliston piggy bank again, with £2m worth of transactions for him reported in new accounts for the company through which he owns £8m worth of property in Mayfair. The amounts, comprising £812,324 worth of loans from the business to Rees-Mogg, and £1,110,424 worth of monies loaned by him to his business.

The transactions resulted in a £298,100 surplus for the firm. Rees-Mogg paid interest at 2.5% on the money he borrowed – amounting to £5,797 – but has charged “no interest on amounts due to him”, according to a related party transaction note detailing the complex arrangements.

Borrowings aside, Rees-Mogg bucked the downturn last year to increase the net worth of his business by a healthy £1.34m to take it to £9.7m as at March 31 2021. There is no hands-on role for the Brexit minister at the firm at the moment, although he has enjoyed three stints as a director, most recently stepping down in July 2019. With the latest profit around eight times what he gets from the taxpayer from sitting in the House of Commons, he need not go to the office. Nice work if you can get it.