Defiant MP Andrew Bridgen refuses to apologise for linking Covid vaccine to the Holocaust
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Suspended MP Andrew Bridgen has refused to apologise after he had the whip removed by the Conservative Party for likening the Covid vaccine to the Holocaust. The tweet led to claims by former Health Secretary Matt Hancock in Parliament to suggest that Mr Bridgen was anti-semitic but the North West Leicestershire MP has insisted he has been misrepresented.
In a statement, Mr Bridgen said: “I’m disappointed that the Chief Whip, Simon Hart, with the support of the Prime Minister, has chosen to suspend me as a member of the Conservative Parliamentary Party. My tweet of 11th of January was in no way anti-Semitic.
“Indeed, it alluded to the Holocaust being the most heinous crime against humanity in living memory. Of course, if anyone is genuinely offended by my use of such imagery, then I apologise for any offence caused.”
He went on: “I wholeheartedly refute any suggestions that I am racist and currently I’m speaking to a legal team who will commence action against those who have led the call suggesting that I am. Indeed, the Israeli doctor
“I quoted in my tweet has stated that there was nothing at all antisemitic about the statement. The fact that I have been suspended over this matter says much about the current state of our democracy, the right to free speech and the apparent suspension of the scientific method of analysis of medicines being administered to billions of people.”
More to follow….
Mr Bridgen is currently serving a five day suspension from Parliament for breaking lobbying rules and sending a letter making allegations about the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
However, just before Christmas he made a speech in Parliament raising concerns about the mRNA vaccine and potential links to heart problems.
In the speech he claimed that a senior figure in the British Heart Foundation had suprressed a report into the vaccine.
The controviersial MP insisted that he was just asking “reasonable questions.”
In his statement, he said: “As I’ve consistently maintained, there are very reasonable questions to be asked about the safety and effectiveness of the experimental MRNA vaccines and the risks and benefits of these treatments.
“There are reasonable questions to ask of a government that is considering extending the use of these experimental vaccines to children as young as six months of age. These, ladies and gentlemen, are babies.”
He added: “There are reasonable questions about the side effects of MRNA vaccines, especially when we kno categorically that the current risk of harm to most of the population, and especially young people, from Covid 19, is minuscule.
“We have a government who indemnifies vaccine manufacturers from claims against the harms caused by their products, and a government, who, it appears, actively look to remove MPs who raise questions about those harms.”