If you were genuinely outraged by what Jacob Rees-Mogg said on TV this morning, you're a fool

To be fair to Rees-Mogg, he’s never pretended that he isn’t a relic of a bygone era. The problem is when people assume the aesthetics – the glasses, the vintage car, the accent, the suits – are the whole package. Being a throwback from about a century ago isn’t just about looking funny; it's also about holding some very objectionable views

Who here was under the impression that Jacob Rees-Mogg, beloved Brexiteer backbencher who managed to inadvertently spark “Moggmentum” among starry-eyed Tory grassroots campaigners, was a champion for progressive values? Apparently a lot of people, if the uproar today following his appearance on Good Morning Britain is anything to go by.

“I’m completely opposed to abortion,” he said – yes, even in cases of rape – and against same-sex marriage because he “support[s] the teaching of the Catholic church. The marriage issue is the important thing, this is not how people arrange their lives.”

Social media went wild. “The ugly face of modern conservatism has been exposed,” said one angry tweeter, having apparently been under the previous impression that Rees-Mogg played a prominent role in LGBT rights demonstrations and held the position of honorary speaker at the anti-Trump Women’s March. But my God, we’ve all caught him with his pants down now – and airing the views he never denied that he had on national television, no less! He would have gotten away with it all, if it weren’t for those pesky cameras.

Who could have possibly guessed that a man on the right of the Conservative Party, who cheerfully admits that he has never once bothered to change a single nappy or do a school run despite having six children and who continues to schlep around with his childhood nanny, could hold objectionable views about gender? A particularly delightful Daily Mail piece about Rees-Mogg said that he’d changed “not a jot” from his days at Eton, “when he carried his belongings in a waxed Harrods bag bearing a Vote Conservative sticker and contemporaries tried to bribe him to swear.”

To be fair to Rees-Mogg, he’s never pretended that he isn’t a relic of a bygone era. The problem is when people assume the aesthetics – the glasses, the vintage car, the accent, the suits, the Mayfair abode, the attachment to having staff about the house – are the whole package. Being a throwback from about a century ago isn’t just about talking funny and looking silly for everyone’s jolly entertainment. It’s also about believing that women shouldn’t have full autonomy over their bodies, that gay people and fully equal rights don’t really mix, and that contraception is a bad idea. This is a man who used to hold dinner parties where he “kept the tradition of women leaving the room while men had brandy”.

The idea that politicians like Rees-Mogg are just fond figures of fun, caricatures of Britishness which it’s fine to embrace because they make us laugh and must therefore be harmless, is what leads a surprising amount of people to sleepwalk into a right-wing future. Far too many self-proclaimed leftie people I know voted for Boris Johnson to be London Mayor “because he was funny”. And I remember well the infuriating conversations I had with people around the time of the American election where, even as Donald Trump was proposing a Mexican wall, they insisted nothing terrible would happen if he became President because he was “just a funny orange figure really, an all-American eccentric who will say anything but can’t cause any serious harm”.

Yes, it is hilarious to read that Rees-Mogg slept in a single bed under a crucifix in white pyjamas every night until he got married – but there are other things that come with the territory. And no, he isn’t a snake in the grass – he hasn’t come to prominence with promises of the type of “compassionate”, “hug-a-hoodie” conservatism David Cameron espoused. He’ll never tell you to “call me Jake”. He won’t pretend to have any working class credentials, or hide the fact that he is a deeply traditional Catholic with reactionary ideas. He is straight-up telling us all what he thinks, and he always has done: indeed, it’s that honesty and authenticity which has apparently resonated with so many grassroots members of his party, at a time when trust in politicians is at an all-time low.

In other words, there is no excuse now for us to hide behind if we allow this man to gain more power. Laugh all the way to the polling station if you like, and cast a vote for the party he’s likely to be gaining more prominence in, but don’t then tell us all how “outraged” you are in a meandering Facebook status which says this wasn’t “what you imagined” when you voted Conservative. You just wanted to get Brexit done and dusted, and he’s said he believes in freedom of choice anyway, and most modern-day Tories don’t seem that bad, and the tabloids said Corbyn was incompetent – fine. But now you know who you’re getting into the white single bed with, don’t get angry that his anachronism goes beyond his tweed jacket.

He doesn’t believe in green energy, he thinks international aid should be abolished in favour of people making charitable donations, he's described Ukip as the Conservatives' "natural allies", and his views on economics are exactly what you’d expect for someone who used to be a slightly less cuddly investment banker. Just because he’s upfront about it doesn’t make it right. And if you’ve been so wilfully blind to what he’s been saying that the GMB interview truly left you shook, then more fool you.