Andrew Bridgen questions why he was kicked out of Tories when ‘Hamas apologist’ remains in | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has demanded to know why a present Tory MP who opposed Hamas being proscribed as a terrorist organisation has been allowed into the social gathering.

Mr Bridgen was expelled by the Tories final 12 months after he was “falsely” accused of being “antisemitic” for quoting a Jewish Israeli scientist suggesting that the issues with the Covid vaccine might be the worst crime towards humanity “since the Holocaust”.

The expulsion came about regardless of quite a few Jewish and Israeli scientists writing to Rishi Sunak in help of him in a letter which Downing Street “did not even acknowledge receipt of”.

It adopted the Prime Minister echoing claims made by former Health Secretary Matt Hancock that Mr Bridgen’s Tweet was “antisemitic”.

However, it emerged this week that one other senior Tory MP Crispin Blunt two years in the past opposed the antisemitic terror group being proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

Mr Blunt, the previous chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs choose Committee, additionally claimed in a debate in 2021 that Hamas had “legitimate targets” in Israel.

This weekend he was on Sky News warning the UK authorities that it could be “complicit in war crimes” with Israel.

And he is a paid director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) which final week tried to cease publication of accusations that Hamas had beheaded infants on the premise it might enhance racism towards Palestinians.

Mr Bridgen has described the Tory strategy to him and Mr Blunt as incoherent.

He advised Express.co.uk: “I was expelled from the Conservative Party on false allegations of antisemitism because I retweeted a report of an Israeli Jewish scientist and used the Holocaust as a time frame.”

He claimed that the offending tweet “was approved and posted by the Chairman of NW Leicestershire Conservatives.”

‘The Conservatives ought to be ashamed’

He went on: “I have always been a supporter of Israel and my defence was supported by a large number of Jewish scientists in a letter that the Prime Minister ignored and even refused to acknowledge receipt of, despite it being recorded delivered signed for three times at Number 10.”

He additionally pointed out that utilizing the Holocaust as a timeframe has been broadly finished this week together with by President Joe Biden and UK authorities ministers after Hamas’s atrocities on October 7.

He mentioned: “The same use of the Holocaust as a time frame has been used this week by UK government ministers, the President of the United States and others.

“Yet a celebration that expels me on false allegations of antisemitism is blissful to maintain an MP who opposed Hamas being designated a terror organisation and even claimed it had official targets in Israel.

“Let us not forget that Hamas’s founding documents used Nazi ideology and calls for the State of Israel to be exterminated.

“Hamas is antisemitic and the Conservatives ought to be ashamed to have an unashamed apologist for Hamas amongst its MPs.”

Mr Blunt: ‘I do not support Hamas’

Mr Blunt has made it clear previously that he not a supporter of Hamas. In the 2021 debate he said: “Do I help Hamas? That is just a little unlikely, talking because the homosexual chair of the all-party parliamentary humanist group.”

However, in a statement yesterday he made it clear that his views have not changed dramatically since the attacks on October 7 which saw babies beheaded among a number of atrocities which have left 1,300 Israeli citizens dead and hundreds more wonded or kidnapped.

He told Express.co.uk: “Plainly the occasions of final Saturday now maintain the case for proscription of each navy and political command construction of Hamas.

“Whether putting all of Hamas beyond the pale had any role in the total lack of restraint and any respect for basic human values in respect of the innocent in the conduct of that operation will be of interest, not least to me.

“As regards the legislation, had the Hamas operation been directed towards the multilayered barrier and uniformed and armed members of the Israeli Defence Force working in help of the unlawful Israeli occupation of Gaza below the phrases of the 4th Geneva Convention, it might most likely have been authorized.

“Even if singularly unwise; but the appalling and random slaughter of hundreds of plainly wholly innocent people, including many children, made this whole operation a war crime and those who carried it out and those who ordered it subject to accountability for these most serious of crimes.”

A quantity of Tory MPs have privately advised Express.co.uk that the expulsion of Mr Bridgen was “a mistake” and “unnnecessary.”

This morning on GB News, Christopher Hope pressed Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Mr Blunt’s most up-to-date feedback on Israel and battle crimes.

Mr Cleverly mentioned: “I have have spoken to Crispin about this issue.

“He is a longstanding opponent of Israel’s actions. I basically disagree together with his evaluation of the scenario.”