Jacob Rees-Mogg orders staff to use imperial measures and double spacing in leaked memo
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Jacob Rees-Mogg has issued a new style guide to his staff demanding all non-titled males be called Esquire and ordering them to use imperial measurements.
The Commons Leader's new list of rules for staff, revealed by ITV, includes banned words and phrases such as “hopefully”, “very”, “due to” and “equal”, as well as “yourself”, “ongoing” and “unacceptable”.
Mr Rees-Mogg’s aides are also banned from using “lot”, “got” and “I am pleased to learn”.
The list was sent out shortly after Jacob Rees-Mogg’s appointment as leader of the House of Commons by the new Prime Minister on Wednesday night.
Other directions included using a double space after full stops, and no comma after the word ‘and’.
The phrase “no longer fit for purpose” has also been deemed no longer fit for purpose by Mr Rees-Mogg.
Mr Rees-Mogg has used the words on his ‘banned list’ 1,189 times since he entered the Commons, according to Hansard, the report of proceedings of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
That does not count the times he has said ‘I’, which also makes the list.
Top of the MP for North Somerset’s list was his use during spoken contributions of "got" 930 times, followed by "very" being used 209 times, including twice on Thursday, then "lot" with 17 uses.
He also used his banned words of ‘equal’ and ‘yourself’ this Thursday.
Mr Rees-Mogg meanwhile advises staff to always use imperial measurements, most of which have been phased out in the UK from the mid-1960s onwards.
The guidance was created by Mr Rees-Mogg's North East Somerset constituency team a few years ago, but has now been widely shared among officials in his new office.
Mr Rees-Mogg is chairman of the European Research Group, a group of hardline Tory Eurosceptics.
