Tory throw-back Jacob Rees-Mogg has been blasted for behaving like an outrageous Victorian who’s run out of claret.
Scottish MPs lined up to criticise the old-school hardliner after he said politicians should “show an example” by travelling back to work in Westminster in the middle of a deadly health crisis.
Rees-Mogg, a key Boris Johnson ally, is resisting “modern” working practices such as remote voting and webcams for MPs to take part in debates.
For Scots, that might mean long trips on public transport including flights from islands to squeeze back into the cramped Commons.
Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael, a former Lib Dem Scottish Secretary, said he isn’t willing to travel to London when it isn’t safe during the pandemic.
“I’m not going to put my family and my community at risk just because Jacob Rees Mogg has an aversion to modernity,” he said.
“His behaviour was quite outrageous. He looks ever-more like some sort of Victorian mill owner having a bit of a spat just because his gentlemen’s club has run out of his favourite claret.
“That is no way to run a modern parliament.”
Philippa Whitford, SNP MP for Central Ayrshire, said Rees Mogg’s call to “set an example” was “crazy”.
She added: “While the UK Government have started bringing England out of lockdown, even there, the advice is to work from home if possible.”
Carmichael hit out at Rees-Mogg as he called for a joint ministerial committee to include devolved administrations in planning a way out of lockdown.
The call follows concern the "four nations" approach is breaking up, with Boris Johnson taking a different line to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
