“I do not need to be a celeb,” former Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg insists after I ask him why he, his spouse and 6 kids have determined to participate in a Kardashian-esque actuality collection known as Meet the Rees-Moggs.

“You must be open in the event you’re a public determine and in the event you’re telling individuals to vote for you, you must inform them who you’re and what you are about,” he says. “And, after all, I believed it could be enjoyable.”

In his 14 years as an MP, the previous minister got here to be seen as some of the controversial politicians of latest instances because of a few of his hardline views. These embody complete opposition to abortion (even in instances of incest and rape) and a perception that there ought to be no local weather change laws.

Within the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower hearth, which killed 72 individuals, Sir Jacob stated it could have been “widespread sense” for residents to flee the constructing, ignoring hearth brigade recommendation. A survivors group described the feedback as “extraordinarily painful and insulting”. Sir Jacob later stated he “profoundly apologised”.

In 2017, former Conservative MP Matthew Parris stated Sir Jacob had “perfumed manners, however his opinions are poison”.

“If you happen to ever say what you assume in politics you are instantly considered controversial,” Sir Jacob tells me as we sit in one of many many eating rooms in his London townhouse.

I ask if he enjoys riling individuals up and he admits to “loving it”, including: “Some persons are really easy to wind up that I am afraid it does entertain me.”

Now Sir Jacob, who can be a GB Information presenter, hopes the truth present provides him one other platform to, in his phrases, “get the Conservative message on the market”.

It’s not recognized how a lot he’s being paid by Discovery+ for the documentary, however as his spouse is the heiress to a reported £45 million fortune, cash does not appear to be a motive.

So, what different motivation might there be for the previous banker to participate within the present? Is it a part of a plan to re-enter politics within the subsequent election after he misplaced his seat in July?

You get the sense he misses the goings-on of Westminster – he confesses that he nonetheless sticks to his MP timetable of returning to his former constituency each Thursday afternoon to Sunday.

However he says he hasn’t thought that far forward. He jokes participating in his household actuality present is “higher than going into the jungle” and that he has no plans to comply with within the footsteps of Nigel Farage and Matt Hancock, who appeared on ITV’s I am a Movie star… Get Me Out of Right here!

Former Downing Road director of communications Simon Lewis says he thinks Sir Jacob is “seeking to reposition”.

“He is solely 55 years previous and he is acquired time to have a second or third chapter doing one thing completely different,” Mr Lewis stated on the When It Hits the Fan podcast.

Carol Midgley of the Instances questioned the politician’s motives for doing the present in her three-star overview.

“It’s not as if he wants… [the] cash so why such a blatant PR push? Does he – shock, horror – need the general public to like him as a result of he’s eyeing one other collection and a TV profession past GB Information?”

Former journalist David Yelland says there’s one thing “very highly effective in regards to the mass market pondering they know you”. He factors to examples akin to President-elect Donald Trump, whose position on The Apprentice helped him purchase the title recognition wanted to run for president, and to Farage’s stint on I am a Celeb.

Sir Jacob is married to Helena de Chair and the couple have six kids, ranging in age from 17 to seven, who all function within the actuality collection.

He says the household are “extra Addams household than Maintaining with the Kardashians” and proceeds to sing the theme tune of the 1964 TV collection: “They’re creepy and so they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky.”

The approach to life the Rees-Moggs lead is actually kooky to the abnormal particular person – within the present, the household have black-tie dinners each Saturday, attend a birthday celebration at Boris Johnson’s home, and there is Sunday Mass in a personal chapel on the household’s Somerset property.

Then there’s all of the workers employed by the household, who do the whole lot from plump the pillows to fold the previous minister’s underwear.

A big, grand portrait of industrious household nanny Veronica, who was additionally Sir Jacob’s nanny when he was a toddler, hangs within the hallway of the Rees-Moggs’ London residence.

On the age of 81, it should be tiring working such an enormous family and taking care of three energetic younger boys however as I stroll previous her, she smiles at me earlier than busying herself once more with finding out baskets of toys.

‘My children make me look left-wing’

Sir Jacob says he was very conscious of the danger that got here with inviting cameras into his residence.

“Actuality programmes will be very unfavourable, so there was a threat concerned in doing this however Helena and I agreed it was a smart threat.

“By advantage of being known as Rees-Mogg, my kids cannot escape who they’re and this has at all times had an impact on their life – they’ve grown up with individuals telling them ‘my dad and mom don’t love your daddy’ and we determined that this present would not make that any higher or worse.”

He provides that the youngsters thought it was “somewhat thrilling” and his daughter Mary was the “most enthusiastic out of all of us”.

“We’ve full throttle discussions about politics and faith as a household,” he says.

“In actual fact, one or two of them make me really feel fairly lefty,” he jokes, however refuses to inform me extra.

He provides that not all dinner desk conversations are so critical and says he has just lately been studying “fashionable slang”.

“My daughter has been making an attempt to show me all of those phrases like rizz and wasteman which I now perceive shouldn’t be a dustman however somewhat a waste of house.”

“And I’ve learnt that sick means good,” he says gleefully.

Critics are divided on whether or not watching 5 hours of the previous MP run round his London townhouse and Somerset mansion is value it.

The Impartial known as the present “toothless and vapid” and its two-star overview stated the documentary “fails to problem him in any critical manner, and is as a substitute a portrait of a curious, attention-seeking household”.

“These anticipating a hate-watch can be upset; these anticipating a political hagiography will discover it vapid,” Nick Hilton wrote.

Joel Golby from the Guardian stated the present was “impeccable actuality TV” however questioned whether or not the ex-MP “ought to be allowed on our screens”.

“That is repute administration of the best order,” he wrote, criticising the “softest enhancing” which painted Sir Jacob wrongly as a “innocent gosh-and-golly goof”.

In Midgley’s overview within the Instances, she stated he could possibly be on to a profitable technique as “viewers do like to press their noses to the home windows of the rich”.

If Midgley is correct, then Sir Jacob could possibly be patting himself on the again as his “calculated threat” pays off.