Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet minister, has claimed that Brexit helped prevent Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine from succeeding. Speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge, Rees-Mogg suggested

that if British foreign policy was still aligned with Brussels, there would be a "mucky compromise" with the Russian dictator. He referred to the EU principle of "sincere cooperation", which requires member states to "assist each other" by performing tasks that stem from its range of treaties.

Rees-Mogg praised Boris Johnson's leadership during the Ukrainian crisis and suggested that Putin would probably have invaded Ukraine successfully if the UK had been bound by the requirement of sincere cooperation. However, Johnson's leadership, which was not bound by this principle, ensured that a coalition was set up that made it impossible for Putin to succeed. Rees-Mogg further noted that the UK saved £191 billion by not being in the EU for its Covid recovery fund and was able to secure a free trade deal with Australia.

In his interview, Rees-Mogg also discussed the mistake of Conservative MPs ousting Boris Johnson last summer and noted that it would be an even bigger mistake now to get rid of Rishi Sunak. The Conservative Party needs to support the leader they have and cannot keep changing leaders, he added. Rees-Mogg supported Sunak but clarified that it didn't mean he agreed with him on every policy. Photo by Cantab12, Wikimedia commons.