Jacob Rees-Mogg has issued a warning to savers across the UK, declaring that the Labour Government has launched a direct “assault” on private property through a “dishonest” raid on pension funds. In a scathing assessment of the current administration, the former cabinet minister argued that the UK is sliding toward a “totalitarian regime” as the state moves to seize control of Brits’ hard-earned savings.

In his eight-minute video posted on X on Tuesday (March 17), Sir Jacob – who served as the MP for North East Somerset from 2010 to 2024 – warned that the very foundations of our nation are being systematically dismantled. “Our Constitution depends on four great pillars,” he explained. “These are freedom of speech, the rights of property, the rule of law, and democracy. Each one of them is carefully intertwined.” He warned that if property rights are removed, the entire democratic structure “falls on your head”. “What does freedom of speech do for you if nobody owns anything?” he asked. “Rights of property ensure that the King – or in modern terms, the State – is under the law rather than being the law.”

Exposing what he describes as a ‘dishonest’ power grab, the now-GB News presenter warned that Section 40 of the Pensions Act is the primary weapon being used to dismantle UK property rights. He claimed the Government is seeking the power to direct how private defined contribution pension funds are invested – effectively “pinching” the choice from individual savers. He warned that instead of allowing savers to choose between global tech giants or emerging markets, the Government wants to force that money into high-risk private equity or failing state infrastructure projects.

“It’s essentially a fraud, a cheat, a lie, a dishonesty,” Sir Jacob said. “It thinks you’re rich, and indeed I think there’s £2trillion worth of investment in pension funds in this country. So they want to raid that because they’re afraid to tax it.”

Citing disastrous state projects like the Channel Tunnel and HS2 – which he called a “white woolly mammoth” – Sir Jacob questioned why any sane Briton would trust the Government with their retirement pot: “The disaster of some Government infrastructure projects is so great that surely you wouldn’t want your investment manager to be compelled to invest in them,” he noted.

He also reminded viewers of the LDI (Liability-Driven Investment) crisis, where Government interference “almost ruined” funds when interest rates spiked.

Beyond pensions, Sir Jacob highlighted Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s Mais lecture – presented at Bayes Business School on Wednesday (March 17) – as further evidence of a “vicious” disregard for ownership. He recounted heart-wrenching stories of elderly farmers being “bullied and attacked” by local councils using compulsory purchase orders (CPOs).

“I saw this happen as a constituency MP, where Bath and North East Somerset Council was really vicious to an elderly farming couple to try and force them to hand over their land. They bullied, they attacked, they were nasty too, they turned up unexpectedly, they threatened with compulsory purchase.

“This is not the way the state should behave,” he added. “Compulsory purchase should be extraordinarily rare […] not for the convenience of the state.”

At the end of his video, Sir Jacob left Brits with a grim reminder of the Government’s trajectory: “You take away property rights, you pull down one of the pillars of the Constitution. [This is] a socialist Government acting in a typical socialist way.”