Politics

Jacob Rees-Mogg resigns as business secretary

Jacob Rees-Mogg has resigned as business secretary.

The Tory MP lasted less than seven weeks having been appointed by Liz Truss into the role in September.

After Truss resigned, he threw his weight behind Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership race, saying the ex-PM is a “winner”.

He subsequently tweeted that he will “support” the leadership of Rishi Sunak.

But he has clearly jumped before he is pushed by announcing his resignation.

A source close to Rees-Mogg told the PA news agency: “He knows he was very close to the previous two regimes and it didn’t seem likely he was going to be appointed in the new Cabinet.

“He’s happy to support the Prime Minister from the backbenches.”

Related: Truss says UK must ‘out-compete’ autocratic regimes ‘where power lies in the hands of the few’

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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