Jacob Rees-Mogg referenced a law from 1688 about spreading 'false news' and everyone made the same joke

Ahh... fake news. The scourge of the internet and the one thing that get's Donald Trump's back up more than anything.

Yet, what would April Fool's Day be without a little prank and the odd bit of fake news? It's fair to say that it would be a pretty dull day.

Yet, The Telegraph's 1 April prank was to try and convince people that April Fool's Day jokes had been banned to prevent panic buying over Brexit.

Sure, this is a harmless little joke that we doubt anyone took seriously, but we can hardly say that we are surprised that Jacob Rees-Mogg took exception to it.

In a tweet where he shared a link to the article, Rees-Mogg cited a proclamation from the Privy Council that was introduced back in 1688 as a way of objecting to it.

Now, the Tory MP isn't lying here or trying to pull his own elaborate prank.

This is actually a law that was introduced by King James II during the Glorious Revolution to prevent false news being spread of invasions and attempts to overthrow him. You can read it all in Ye Very Old English here.

We hate to promote stereotypes about people, but the fact that Rees-Mogg was sharing knowledge of a law that was four centuries old is exactly the sort of thing that the 49-year-old would do.

Needless to say, there were a lot of jokes about the MP for North East Somerset, who only on Sunday had quoted a far-right, anti-German political party on Twitter.

That being said, Rees-Mogg would make an April Fool's Day joke by telling LBC's radio Nick Ferrari that speaker John Bercow should be the next leader of the Tory party.

I would have thought John Bercow would have been the best bet for us. 

John Bercow has shown he is able to get a majority in the House of Commons, that he is managing to keep it together.

Historically, the Prime Minister is the person who commands a majority in the House of Commons.

More: Emily Maitlis eviscerates Jacob Rees-Mogg on Newsnight for 'evoking slavery'