Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party suspended MP Andrew Bridgen after he compared Covid-19 vaccinations to the Holocaust.
(Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party suspended MP Andrew Bridgen after he compared Covid-19 vaccinations to the Holocaust.
Bridgen shared a link and chart on Twitter on Wednesday, purporting to show evidence of heart problems related to vaccines, and added the comment: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust.”
Conservative colleagues reacted angrily to the claims. “Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives,” Chief Whip Simon Hart said in a statement. “I am therefore removing the whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation.” That means Bridgen cannot vote as a Conservative.
In the House of Commons, Sunak called Bridgen’s comments “utterly unacceptable,” adding: “I am determined that the scourge of antisemitism is eradicated, it has absolutely no place in our society.”
Read Next: Most Britons No Longer Know How Many Jews Died in the Holocaust
During World War II Nazi Germany systematically killed 6 million Jews, as well as targeting Roma, Polish and Russian people and persecuting individuals for their political ideology or sexuality.
Bridgen is in the middle of serving a five-day suspension from the House of Commons after breaching rules on paid lobbying and the declaration of interests. He was found to have approached ministers and officials on behalf of a forestry company, Mere Plantations, that had given him a donation, paid for a visit to Ghana and made an offer of a contract for advisory work.
(Updates with Sunak comments and details in paragraphs four and five.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.