The former Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has found himself defending Britain’s decision to fight against Adolf Hitler after inviting the US rightwinger and Vladimir Putin sympathiser Tucker Carlson into his home for an interview.
During the encounter, Carlson repeatedly suggested the west was to blame for inviting aggression from Russia and said of the prospect that Britain could have lost to Hitler: “Who cares?”
Rees-Mogg, who lost his parliamentary seat in 2024, appears to have agreed to host Carlson’s podcast show after carving out a post-politics career as a commentator.
Carlson set up the show after leaving Fox News and losing faith with Donald Trump, largely citing the US president’s willingness to get involved in foreign wars. Carlson has interviewed Putin and taken a sympathetic position towards Russia over Ukraine.
In the lengthy debate on foreign policy and global tensions, the US commentator repeatedly goaded Rees-Mogg over the smallness of the UK armed forces and suggested Russia was more powerful.
Rees-Mogg explained that the UK economy was bigger and made the case that Britain and western allies had to support Ukraine and deter Russian aggression.
Carlson went on to question why Britain bothered entering the second world war and claimed Germany had a legitimate claim over parts of Poland.
Rees-Mogg said: “Otherwise we’d be speaking German.”
Carlson replied: “Who cares? There are a lot of people in Britain who can’t speak English. So it would be nice to have at least a European language spoken in your country.”
During the interview, Rees-Mogg said he was very surprised that Carlson was “verging on defending Hitler”, adding: “I think this is not really what you want to be doing.”
Carlson replied: “Yeah, I guess I’m just a secret Nazi. I’m actually not a secret Nazi … and hardly a public Nazi.”
Rees-Mogg responded that he was reassured, before saying that “Germany would have invaded us” if the UK had not gone to war.
The interview has raised eyebrows in the US as well as Britain, with the Republican Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, posting on X: “When it seemed impossible for Toxic Tucker to descend deeper into the sewer here he goes opining that UK should have let Nazis take over. Forget that Hitler murdered 11 million people? I thought Tucker was against killing? He needs help. Serious help.”
