The Tory and the fake potential constituent

“Honesty on the economy,” trumpets the political leaflet from Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for North East Somerset. “Jacob Rees-Mogg believes it is time to be honest with North East Somerset residents,” we are told.

Somewhat embarrassing, therefore, that there’s an accompanying picture of him talking to a blonde woman that is captioned: “Jacob talking to a lady in Midsomer Norton”. For she isn’t a constituent or even a random shopper. She’s Fiona Tyrrell, office manager of Rees-Mogg’s London-based fund management company Somerset Capital, as seen on the company’s website. (N.B. The link on the photo is to the version from the local party website, which doesn’t have the same caption)

This is not the first time Rees-Mogg has been guilty of such Zebu. In March, he had to apologise after it was revealed that an article in one of his leaflets had been pilfered wholesale from an article in The Sun.

In October, Tory leader David Cameron said that the Tories must be honest with the public. After everything that has happened this year, you would have thought that all politicians and prospective politicians would understand the importance of avoiding such foolish fakery. Clearly not. If Cameron has a rocket left from Guy Fawkes’ Night, we can think of somewhere he should stick it before lighting the blue touch paper and retiring.