Jacob Rees-Mogg in line for potential windfall from sale of Somerset Capital

Sale of investment firm business secretary co-founded could result in multi-million pound payout

Riding through London in the back of a Rolls-Royce in the early 1980s, 12-year-old Jacob Rees-Mogg proudly declared his ambitions: I've always wanted to be rich."

The besuited youngster, who was already an ardent supporter of then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, calmly explained to a French reporter that he had put his plans in motion five years earlier when he invested a 50 inheritance in the shares of utility firm GEC.