UK politician apologises for plagiarising newspaper

A British Conservative Party parliamentary candidate has been caught out plagiarising The Sun newspaper in a campaign leaflet, it was revealed today.

Jacob Rees-Mogg posted the leaflet through the doors of prospective voters in North East Somerset, criticising British prime minister Gordon Brown’s failings over the economy.

However, entire sections of the letter, signed by Mr 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 letter boxes of houses in Radstock and Keynsham last month.

Mr Rees-Mogg, son of former Times editor Lord (William) Rees-Mogg, admitted he had not written any of it and 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, Mr Rees-Mogg read history at Trinity College, Oxford, and now runs finance company Somerset Capital Management.

Mr Rees-Mogg 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.”