Investment banker, MP, reality TV star, and now investigator: Jacob Rees-Mogg can seemingly do it all.

The former Brexit minister has swapped his top hat for a deerstalker after setting out to investigate whether a secluded hotel in his local area, the Winford Manor Hotel near Bristol Airport, was housing migrants.

Reporting on his GB News programme State of the Nation, Rees-Mogg said he attempted to speak to security staff, only to be rebuffed.

He also spotted multilingual signage asking people not to litter, suggesting this was a hallmark of asylum accommodation.

Rees-Mogg's report saw him drive out to the hotel with a GB News cameraman in a Jaguar and stand at the hotel's padlocked gates, where he attempted to speak to a security guard at the entrance.

The guard responded to the Eton-educated man's jovial greeting by closing the door of his sentry box.

The ex-MP, dressed as ever in a tailored suit, appeared to suggest in his report that asylum seekers were being 'hidden' in the hotel, which is 1.5 miles from Bristol Airport in the heart of the North Somerset countryside.

'You're actually in the middle of nowhere... it seems perhaps a good place to hide illegal migrants in,' he opined.

The intrepid investigator poked his head over the wall and called out to what appeared to be security staff: 'Hello! Is this an illegal migrant place?' They did not reply.

'No-one we've seen looks like someone who would've come over here on a boat,' he added, as he watched a man talk into a walkie-talkie.

He even spotted signs in Persian, French and Vietnamese alongside some in English dissuading people from littering. 

Having concluded his investigation, Rees-Mogg said he attempted to get answers from the Home Office and local authorities, but got none.

Instead, the Government provided a statement in which it said it has reduced the number of asylum hotels from more than 400 to 'less than 210' - to which the famously loquacious ex-MP could not resist correcting to 'fewer than 210' on air.

Rees-Mogg defended his reporting on the hotel as being in the 'public interest', adding: 'The public deserve to know who is living in their communities.

'These hotels are appearing in remote locations and the authorities' unwillingness to be transparent about them means it is left to us to do so.'  

Documents published by the local parish council suggest the Winford Manor Hotel has been used as asylum accommodation as recently as 2022.

It was being operated by Clearsprings - run by notorious 'migrant hotel king' billionaire Graham King - on behalf of the Home Office. The firm declined to comment today, referring the Mail to the Government for comment.

An email sent to the parish council by North Somerset Council officers in August that year noted: 'Winford Manor has been identified by the Home Office as a hotel for asylum seekers awaiting their application to remain in the UK to be processed. 

'The council was only alerted to this a short time ago and it has been made clear to us that we cannot object to the use of the premises.'

Official land records show the Winford Manor Hotel was sold to investment firm IntSol in 2022 via a holding company, Winford Holding Ltd. 

Its director, Antonio 'Tony' Kounnis, also runs a security firm and heads up the UK arm of a facial recognition company.

Upon completion of the sale, acting agents Christie & Co said IntSol had begun a 'sizeable' refurbishment project, including a renovation of the existing rooms and the addition of several more. 

It was due to re-open following the refurbishment in 2024 - but as Rees-Mogg found, it remains very much closed. 

The Mail has contacted IntSol, the Home Office and North Somerset Council for comment.

Rees-Mogg, 56, has reinvented himself as a media personality after losing his seat in North East Somerset and Hanham to Labour last year.

As well as hosting his own show on GB News - which has led to clashes over impartiality between the broadcaster and regulator Ofcom - he and his family appeared in their own reality series last year.

The 'Honourable Member for the 18th Century', as he has been nicknamed in the press, appeared in Discovery+ series Meet the Rees-Moggs last year alongside wife Helena and children Peter, Mary, Thomas, Anselm, Alfred and Sixtus.