When Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg goes on his very first theatre tour next month, audiences should be warned not to take the tour's title too literally. Promising an evening of sharp wit, unabashed opinion and trademark charm, the tour is called Mogg, Unbuttoned. But there certainly won't be anything unbuttoned about his appearance.

The Eton-educated, former Conservative minister has cultivated a public image as the double-breasted quintessential English gent, whose dress and upper-class mannerisms have led him to being dubbed The Honourable Member for the 18th century. So, his stage costume is certainly not going to bring any surprises.

"Do you think sequins would be a good idea?" he smiles wryly. "No, I will be dressed pretty much as I usually am. When I get up in the morning I always put on a tie and a coat jacket. Sometimes, when I'm in the country, a tweed one, but I'm always relatively formerly dressed - even in the evenings watching television. I'm afraid I'm very boring; I wear pretty much the same thing every day."

In fact, the former MP must be one of the few people in the country who doesn't own a pair of jeans. "What would I do with them?" he asks incredulously in his baritone drawl. "Admire them in the wardrobe?"

Surely though, he must wear something more casual on holiday: a T-shirt and shorts perhaps?

"No, absolutely never," he says firmly. "I have a white suit for holidays in hot climates. I've dressed this way for as long as I can remember, even as a teenager. My children have a wider variety of clothes; they haven't followed in my footsteps."

Maybe not quite so much, but the entire family nevertheless sits down to a formal black tie dinner every Saturday at their Somerset country pile and are even summoned to the table with a dinner gong.

The tradition began during lockdown, when they dressed up for son Thomas's 10th birthday and it has remained.

"Now of course he's the one of my children who doesn't want to dress for dinner at all," Rees-Mogg smiles. "The others wear black tie. The youngest is eight. You can find black tie for eight year-olds and he has an old bow tie that belonged to my father which he rather likes putting on."

A former Leader of the House of Commons and then minister for Brexit Opportunities under Boris Johnson, Rees-Mogg served as Business Secretary under Liz Truss. But after 14 years as an MP, he lost his North East Somerset seat to Labour in the 2024 election and has had to find other work.

GB News snapped him up to host his own nightly news show and last year he ventured into reality television - appearing alongside his family in the hilarious fly-on-the-wall documentary series Meet the Rees-Moggs. He wouldn't rule out other reality shows, but reveals that he turned down Strictly Come Dancing.

"I was asked a year ago, but I'm a man with two left feet," he says.

"I was flattered, but I didn't think it was my skill set. I've been asked to do lots of them over the years, but I like my creature comforts too much. I'm not going to sleep uncomfortably, or wear funny clothes. I think I would look ridiculous in the jungle. I may look ridiculous anyway, but I would look even more ridiculous!"

He wouldn't have been the first senior Tory politician, either. Former minister and Express columnist Ann Widdecombe made quite the splash during her own short run on the show in 2010.

Rees-Mogg however is clearly more comfortable in a speaking role and is currently preparing for his tour. "I go around the country quite a lot anyway speaking to Conservative associations. My wife keeps asking me - haven't I yet addressed every single Conservative association that there is?

"I also speak at universities and schools. If you're in public life you have a message to get across and if I can accept invitations to speak, I do."

However, the theatre show is not just an opportunity for Rees-Mogg to share his political views. Each performance will feature an extended Q&A session, offering audiences the chance to quiz him directly.

"People can ask any question they like," he says. "It's not going to be controlled. I'm a great believer in free speech, so if somebody wants to stand up and ask pointed, hard questions that's very welcome.

"If you're in political life you've got to be thick-skinned and people are entitled to their opinion and to think that politicians are awful, it's not an unfair thing. Though I was once walking home from the House of Commons and somebody wound his window down and shouted out at me: 'Peter Mandelson, you've ruined the country!' So, you sometimes get abuse that misfires entirely!"

Unashamedly to the right of the Conservative Party, Rees-Mogg is adamant that he will not be following fellow Tories in defecting to Reform, despite his admiration for their leader Nigel Farage.

"I make no bones about the fact that I like Nigel Farage. I normally see him two or three times a week. I think he's an enormously capable politician and we broadly agree on the main issues," he explains.

"But I think there is very little to Reform other than Nigel and he knows that I am a loyal Tory. He's teased me and said I would win a seat more easily if I stood for Reform, rather than the Conservatives, but he hasn't said, 'Please come, I'd love you to join us'.

"I want the right to unite; I think that's essential prior to the next election, but I think I make a bigger contribution for the Conservatives, rather than defecting. Kemi Badenoch is doing extremely well at the moment, so I'm very supportive of her personally.

"I don't think the defectors have done themselves any favours. Suella [Braverman] always seemed a natural fit for Reform anyway, but I'm afraid Robert [Jenrick], having lost the leadership, should have stayed in the party. You can't take your bat and ball home."

Rees-Mogg, the youngest son of former newspaper editor Lord Rees-Mogg, is married to the equally aristocratic Helena Anne Beatrix Wentworth Fitzwilliam de Chair. The couple, who divide their time between Somerset and a five storey £5million house close to Parliament, have six equally colourfully-named children: Peter Theodore Alphege, 18, Mary Anne Charlotte Emma, 17, Thomas Wentworth Somerset Dunstan, 15, Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam, 14, Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius, ten and eight-year-old Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher.

Sir Jacob has been berated for his past admission that he never changed a single nappy for any of his children when they were babies. The family has a team of staff to help them run their home - from cleaning the Bentley, to making their own cider and polishing the family silverware - but Rees-Mogg insists he is a hands-on dad in other ways.

"I certainly don't cook, but I very occasionally made tea for my children when they were younger, which they always liked hugely, because it was ice cream with little bits of Galaxy popping out of it!" he laughs.

"I am involved in family life and most nights I race back from GB News to my two little ones and we have five minutes of YouTuber Ali-A, which is slapstick humour and then I read them a story. I've just finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

The four eldest are away at boarding school. "I wanted them to get a very good education and also both my wife and I had been to boarding schools, so you tend to think that what you did is not such a bad idea," he explains. "But there's nothing I like more than them all being at home: it's just such fun."

Away from work he enjoys watching cricket, but admits he is not generally a man for hobbies. "The great thing about politics is that it's an interest as well as a job," he says. "Sometimes at social events people say to me, 'oh, I'm sure you won't want to talk about politics', and I say, 'no, let's talk about politics, otherwise I won't have anything to say!'"

Affable, charming and seemingly unflappable, Rees-Mogg refreshingly does not take himself too seriously, even when it comes to the joke about being The Honourable Member for the 18th century. "I can't think why they think I'm so horribly modern. Surely, it should have been an earlier century than that," he quips.

While his new found celebrity status is undoubtedly proving enjoyable, politics nevertheless remains his first love.

"I'd love to get back into the House of Commons," he enthuses. "The country is appallingly governed at the moment. We need to have a strong Conservative government and I'd love to be part of that, but in the meantime, I need to be putting the arguments outside Parliament.

"I'm not nervous about the tour. I've done a lot of public speaking and I enjoy it. Osbert Sitwell put in his entry in Who's Who that he enjoyed listening to the sound of his own voice, preferably on gramophone records.

"There aren't gramophone records any more, but, like most politicians, I'm not entirely averse to the sound of my own voice!"

• Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg tours with Mogg, Unbuttoned in April and May. Tickets are limited but on sale now, visit jacobreesmogglive.com