Jacob Rees-Mogg took a Latin test on live radio and failed miserably

Latin is back on the political and educational agenda again – but it looks like we shouldn’t be relying on Tory MPs to teach it to the kids.

A new government scheme wants to end the “elitist” perception of the subject by introducing it to 40 state schools, with £4 million set to be put into the Latin Excellency Programme as part of a four-year pilot.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said that Latin has a reputation of being “only reserved for the privileged few” but believes the “subject can bring so many benefits to young people, so I want to put an end to that divide.”

Should this take off you might have a generation of people who speak like Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. They have both made their familiarity with the classical language part of their overall gimmick and have even spoken it in the Commons. However, despite perceptions, it turns out that Rees-Mogg isn’t as knowledgeable on Latin as you might think.

The Tory MP and Leader of the House of Commons appeared on Camilla Tominey’s LBC Radio show on Monday where the Eton and Oxford-educated politician was tested with some fiendish questions on the subject. Let’s just say it didn’t go well too for Rees-Mogg.

In fact, the 52-year-old only managed to get one out of the three questions correct, which was the Eton school motto. Sadly, he didn’t guess the translation for “don’t get your knickers in a twist” which would have been quite something to hear Rees-Mogg say that on the radio.

In all fairness, Rees-Mogg did admit that his overall knowledge of Latin isn’t the greatest and that LBC should have got Johnson on instead. Regardless, people couldn’t help but be amused that Rees-Mogg, who can often appear to pride himself on just how posh he is, really didn’t know that much about Latin at all.

Perhaps we’ll see him taking up a few classes in state schools when the scheme is up and running. Carpe diem, Mr Rees-Mogg.