The son of former Times editor William Rees-Mogg has apologised for plagiarising Trevor Kavanagh’s Sun column in a political campaign leaflet.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative parliamentary candidate for North East Somerset, posted the leaflet through the doors of prospective voters, criticising Gordon Brown’s failings over the economy.
But entire sections of the letter, signed by Rees-Mogg, were taken from an article by The Sun’s Trevor Kavanagh in December last year.
The leaflet was sent to prospective voters in January and then pushed through letterboxes of houses in Radstock and Keynsham last month.
Rees-Mogg admitted he had not written any of it and said he would apologise to Kavanagh.
He said someone else had put the piece together on his behalf and that person was to blame for the plagiarism, which replaced the odd reference to “Britain” with “North East Somerset”.
Educated at Eton, Rees-Mogg read history at Trinity College, Oxford, and now runs finance company Somerset Capital Management.
He told the Western Daily Press: “Though the piece expresses my views, I didn’t specifically write it, although I agree with the points made.
“While the points are valid, plagiarism is a bad thing and I will drop a note to Mr Kavanagh apologising, and we won’t ask the person who did write this to write for us again.
“It’s embarrassing and a matter for which I apologise.”
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