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Annunziata Rees-Mogg

Credentials

Annunziata Rees-Mogg attended Godolphin and Latymer, a private girls’ school in Hammersmith, London.¹

Background

Annunziata Rees-Mogg is a headhunter, former journalist and unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party. She stood for the party in the 2005 and 2010 general elections.² ³ ⁴

Rees-Mogg was announced in April 2019 as a European Parliament election candidate for the newly-formed Brexit Party, led by Nigel Farage. She spoke at the launch event in Coventry, saying:

“I joined the Conservative Party in 1984 and this is not a decision I have made lightly – to leave a party for which I have fought at every election since 1987, from Maggie Thatcher through to Theresa May.

“I know which one I’d rather have representing us now.”⁵

Rees-Mogg was previously editor of the European Journal, a magazine owned by anti-EU thinktank the European Foundation, founded and chaired by Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash. The Foundation’s advisory board includes Matthew Elliott, former CEO of the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the official Brexit campaign, Vote Leave, and Owen Paterson, climate science denying former Environment Secretary and Chair of the UK2020 thinktank.⁶ ⁷

The thinktank published a report in 2009 entitled “100 reasons why global warming is natural” that denied there was any human influence on climate change. The report was published to coincide with the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.⁸

The European Foundation is one of several right-wing, pro-Brexit groups based on Tufton Street in Westminster. The UK’s principal climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, is based in the same offices.

Rees-Mogg was deputy editor of the investment magazine MoneyWeek between 2005 and 2006, contributing to the publication until November 2007.⁹

Rees-Mogg wrote an article in 2006 entitled “How to invest in Canada’s black gold mine,” recommending how readers could best profit from the Canadian “tar sands” boom.¹⁰

In another article in 2006, she argued that coal was about to make a “comeback,” saying it was “now being touted as a key part of Britain’s energy future, and its clean energy future at that.”¹¹

Rees-Mogg was a Leader Writer for The Telegraph between 2006 and 2007, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has been a director of Wild Search, an executive recruitment agency, since 2014.¹²

Rees-Mogg is s ister of anti-EU Conservative MP and Chair of the European Research Group, Jacob Rees-Mogg.¹³

Stance on Climate Change

April 27, 2016

Rees-Mogg tweeted:

“I’m really enjoying this global warming. Simply tropical for late April in London.”¹⁴

November 5, 2007

In an article for MoneyWeek magazine entitled “How to profit from the world’s water crisis,” Rees-Mogg wrote:

“Global warming means that the UK has not escaped the worldwide drought phenomenon. London’s long-term average rainfall has now dropped below that of Istanbul, Dallas and Nairobi, points out Juliette Jowit in The Observer. The Government is considering proposals to introduce drought orders banning ‘non-essential’ use of water. Australia is suffering severe droughts, exacerbated by the El Niño effect.”

“Climate change will mean more extreme weather conditions and more water in the sea.”¹⁵

Key Quotes

April 12, 2019

At the launch of Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, Rees-Mogg said:

“I joined the Conservative Party in 1984 and this is not a decision I have made lightly – to leave a party for which I have fought at every election since 1987, from Maggie Thatcher through to Theresa May.

“I know which one I’d rather have representing us now.”¹⁶