Jacob Rees-Mogg has said people need to “get perspective” after broadcaster Andrew Marr spoke about his “intense anger” about his father’s death at the same time lockdown-breaking parties were held in Downing Street.
On the Tuesday edition of his LBC programme Tonight, just hours after Boris Johnson apologised in the Commons for breaching lockdown rules, Mr Marr said: “I buried my father on the week that one of those parties took place and it was a party.
“He was an elder of the Church of Scotland – that church was locked and barred. We had a small gathering, most of the family weren’t there. The other parishioners he would have loved to be there weren’t allowed to be there because we followed the rules.
“And I felt intensely angry about that – and I do not regard this as fluff.”
Mr Rees-Mogg, the government’s Brexit opportunities minister, at first avoided responding to the presenter’s point, instead saying it was a “great mistake” to close churches.
He went on: “What is happening now two years on against what’s going on in Ukraine, what is going on with the cost of living crisis, one has to get a sense of perspective.
“What is going on in Ukraine is fundamental to the security of the Western world. And you are comparing this to a fine issued for something that happened two years ago.”
He added: “I think we need to look at what is fundamental to the security of our nation and the security of the Western world.”
Mr Marr, who recently joined LBC after 22 years at the BBC, pressed Mr Rees-Mogg on his use of language in response to the Partygate revelations, which he had dismissed as fluff.
He said: “I’m really sorry but thinking about what happened to my family, and I only use that because it happened to so many others up and down the country … we find, I would say, that word fluff quite offensive.”
The minister eventually said he did not regret using the word fluff, despite the prime minister now having been fined by police.
He said: “I still think that in comparison with the war in Ukraine … a fine for something that happened two years ago is not the most pressing political matter. The Daily Mail headline said ‘don’t forget there’s a war on’ and this is something we have to remember – we need a sense of perspective”.
He added while the prime minister was sorry to bereaved families, “all deaths are sadnesses” including those not caused by Covid.
Johnson apologised to Commons on Tuesday
