Jacob Rees-Mogg says his 'slumbers' were disturbed by Boris Johnson on Sunday morning

Jacob Rees-Mogg has recounted a recent occasion in which the former prime minister woke him up on a Sunday morning. Yes, really.

Writing in the Spectator, the former minister described what happened when Liz Truss resigned and rumours started going round that Boris Johnson might try and become leader of the party again.

He said he wanted his old boss back and that his campaign was going well but he couldn't get it off the ground and Johnson rang him early in the morning to talk about it.

He wrote: "I wanted Boris back, as he had the mandate and his removal was a mistake. His campaign started well but then ran out of steam.

"This was clear by Sunday morning, when my slumbers were disturbed by the great man himself prior to the Laura Kuenssberg programme. Unlike the famous farmer, the lark is not my morning alarmer, so I was not entirely gruntled by so early a call."

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So no, Johnson didn't literally break into the MPs house, rip off his night hat and get him going for the day - though this is certainly what it sounds like.

In case you don't remember the tumultuous sequence of events, Johnson said he had got enough MPs to run in the leadership race but insisted it was "not the right time" to run. In the end, it was only Rishi Sunak who got enough nominations to stay in the race so now he is PM and because he wasn't the biggest fan of Sunak resigning from Johnson's cabinet and triggering Johnson's topple from power, Rees-Mogg promptly resigned via a handwritten note.

Meanwhile, the former minister also used his column to explain why he has a clock with his own name on it, which people noticed during his interview with Kuenssberg, in which he praised Johnson's "historic" achievements.

He wrote: "The interview with Kuenssberg was set up so that a clock was visible in the background and more people watched the clock than listened to my ephemeral comments. It has M for 12, O for 3 and G for both 6 and 9, spelling MOGG.

"It was made by the Quarmans of Temple Cloud for Jacob Mogg, after whom I am named, and given to me by my father. Jacob was a local businessman who was one of the early patrons of William Smith, the geologist. Smith lived in north-east Somerset and worked out the strata of rock from the pit at High Lyttelton in which Jacob was an investor.

"The Quarmans made clocks and were, I believe, also the local undertakers, a grandfather clock requiring similar carpentry skills to a coffin."

That's that mystery solved then.

Even from the backbenches, Rees-Mogg continues to be one of the most strange presences in British politics.

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