Jacob Rees-Mogg released a short video promoting the government’s new schemes to help businesses with their energy bills – but, it may have been derailed before it was even released.
In the clip released on Wednesday, the newly appointed business secretary explained how UK firms were struggling to cope with soaring energy costs as they are not protected by the energy price cap (now frozen at £2,500 for households).
He promised that the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for “non-domestic users” would come in from October 1, offering a discount on wholesale gas for businesses of all sizes, charities, schools, nurseries, hospitals and care homes.
The six-month discount will be automatically applied to energy bills.
“The action we are taking will boost growth, and protect jobs and livelihoods. We want to keep high streets like this one – humming this winter and beyond,” the business secretary promised.
In between shots of the minister standing in a bustling street, the video skips to local businesses serving customers while gentle, happy music plays in the background.
This video does indeed give off a more idyllic image of life on the UK high street – but that’s quite literally not the full picture.
As a behind-the-scenes image shared by Sky News’ Sam Coates on Tuesday evening reveals, Rees-Mogg was actually standing next to a boarded up shop and a pile of rubbish. This seems an apt metaphor for all the businesses which have struggled over the summer, while the government refused to step in to mitigate the rising cost of living crisis.
Downing Street said at the start of the summer, when Boris Johnson resigned, that it would not be making any fiscal interventions until a new Tory leader was elected – two months later.
As you can imagine, Twitter had plenty to say about this, from comparing it to the sketch show about politics, The Thick of It, to the Netflix drama about a crooked lawyer, Better Call Saul.
Others were quick to speculate why Rees-Mogg chose to release an edited video rather than reveal the scheme in the House of Commons where other MPs could scrutinise it.
Basically remove scrutiny by doing videos and not in the house of Commons. https://t.co/6c3Ato66tG
— Duffeh | ?️? ?️️?️? (@Duffeh_Leeds) September 20, 2022
