Welcome to the world of Jacob Rees-Mogg, the plummy Tory eccentric who acts like he has just arrived from 1923
HE is the lanky, pinstripe suit-wearing Conservative MP whose posh tones could have come straight from the pages of Jeeves And Wooster.
But behind Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ultra-posh exterior is a shrewd politician who is proving an unlikely hit on Instagram. He’s also a big fan of the No1 Sun.
On Wednesday Rees-Mogg delighted his growing army of fans by announcing the name of his sixth child — and it was typically eccentric.
Baby Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher joins older siblings Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius, Thomas Wentworth Somerset Dunstan, Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam, Peter Theodore Alphege and the more usual Mary Anne Charlotte Emma.
Last night, instead of changing nappies, Jacob — who was described by one satirical website as coming straight out of 1923 — was on TV, sharing his wisdom and cut-glass drawl on Question Time.
And it seems the more peculiar he appears, the more he is adored.
His newly opened Instagram account has quickly amassed 28,500 followers — and it does a fine job shining a spotlight on his quirkiness.
Pictures include Jacob, 48, with a mini-me son (in a suit, of course) on the campaign trail outside a tattoo parlour that has a Labour poster in the window. The caption reads: “We shall have to take our business elsewhere.”
Talking to The Sun last night, he explained: “I don’t set out to be eccentric. Politics is extremely serious but I think people should also enjoy it.
“The Sun’s headline writers always get a clever pun into a political story and that lightens something that is very serious, and that is a good way to make politics more interesting to people.”
The MP is a staunch supporter of a free press and has said: “Celebrities and other public figures use publicity to their own advantage.
“Those who use it to show themselves in a good light must expect their seedy secrets to be of equal, if not greater, interest.”
At 12 years old, Jacob started reading the Financial Times and even attended shareholder meetings of the companies he had invested in.
By the time he left Eton for Oxford, he had found his love of formal wear and a hairstyle that looks as if it was smoothed down by the finger licks of a fussy nanny.
Oxford student newspaper Cherwell often teased him, calling him a “pushy fresher” who maintained his “respectable status” at Eton by employing students to “clean his shoes or to hold an umbrella over him whilst running” — something Jacob denies.
But he does not deny the valuable service of the family’s long-serving nanny, Veronica Crook, who will now be entrusted with baby Sixtus.
That is the same nanny who cared for Jacob and who he once took out canvassing for votes in Fife.
Last year, he auctioned Veronica off, along with himself and the promise of afternoon tea, to raise £5,000 for the Brexit campaign.
Staunchly traditional, Jacob once admitted: “I’m not hugely domesticated. I’m going to make no pretence that I am busy scrubbing floors in the Rees-Mogg household.
“I don’t cook or wash up. I do know how to change a light bulb but I have never built an Ikea flat-pack.”
He will, however, take the children — all under the age of ten — on to the lawn for a spot of cricket, bowling in his double-breasted jacket and trousers. Asked if he would ever consider shorts, he simply replied: “The mind boggles.” His preferred mode of transport is an ancient Bentley without seat belts. Of course he can afford an update. The family of his aristocratic wife Helena de Chair is said to be worth £45million.
And he has his own fortune through company Somerset Capital Management, which manages around £5.8billion of investments.
Yet despite such riches, the unfailingly polite “Snoop Mogg” — as he is nicknamed on social media — still appeals to the masses.
Matt Huffadine, 31, who works in the West Harptree Spar in Jacob’s North East Somerset constituency, said: “He’s a lovely man. We had a robbery last summer and he came in shortly afterwards with his wife to bring us a bottle of whisky.”
The son of former Times editor William, Jacob was always a bit out of the ordinary.
Nanny Veronica said: “He wasn’t really naughty, he was a one-off, he was different. He did his own thing.”
Fast-forward to now and little has changed. Former Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont said: “I campaigned for him and I remember knocking on the door of one lady who exclaimed, ‘Jacob Rees-Mogg, he’s a blast from the past! I love him!’”
It is this easy warmth with the public that is seeing his star rise.
Even working class SNP firebrand Mhairi Black, who is gay and from Paisley, joked he was her boyfriend. She said: “He’s my favourite.”
And with a petition for him to replace Theresa May as Tory leader gaining ground, his choice of baby name might not be the only surprise.