On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Britain’s governing conservative party suspended a lawmaker for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and comparing the shots to the Holocaust, Associated Press reported.
Bridgen, who gained a national profile in recent years as a vociferous champion of Brexit, represents the North West Leicestershire constituency in central England.
The party suspended Andrew Bridgen from the Conservative group in the House of Commons after he tweeted content questioning the vaccine’s safety. The lawmaker said that a cardiologist told him: “this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”
Lawmakers Criticised Andrew Bridgen
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who condemned the lawmaker’s comments “in the strongest possible terms,” said they were “utterly unacceptable.” Meanwhile, conservative Chief Whip Simon Hart said Mr. Bridgen “has crossed a line” and caused great offense.
“As a nation, we should be very proud of what has been achieved through the vaccine program,” the chief whip added.
“Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives. I am therefore removing the whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation,” Hart stated.
According to global news outlets, Andrew Bridgen is currently suspended from entering Parliament for five days for breaching lobbying rules. “When he returns, he will sit as an independent lawmaker,” the Associated Press reported.
Along the same lines, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock, described the lawmaker’s comments as “highly irresponsible and wholly inappropriate.”
For Lord Mann, an independent peer and former Labour MP advising the government on antisemitism, “Andrew Bridgen should be barred from standing for the Tories at the next election.”
Criticism Targets PM Andrew Bridgen
According to the BBC, Andrew Bridgen stirred controversies after being critical of policies like the lockdown and vaccine passports. However, he praised the development of Covid vaccines and proudly tweeted when he received his doses.
Mr. Bridgen began to make increasingly baseless claims, including the unproven claim that vaccines were killing many people and that “the damage was being covered up,” the BBC reported.
According to the Guardian, Andrew Bridgen has repeatedly broken the MPs’ code of conduct by a cross-party committee, which endorsed findings from Kathryn Stone, the parliamentary commissioner for standards.
Andrew Bridgen’s Response
Andrew Bridgen later posted a video about his suspension, expressing his disappointment following his suspension and indicating that his previous tweet was “no way anti-semitic.”
In the video posted to his official Twitter account, Mr. Bridgen apologized for any offensive comments. He also questioned the current state of democracy and the right of free speech in the country.
Misbar’s Sources
