A Conservative MP has been suspended from his party over a post on social media in which he shared the sentiment that COVID vaccinations are “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”.
Andrew Bridgen, the Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, has been suspended from the Conservative parliamentary party after making a post on Twitter comparing coronavirus vaccines to the Holocaust.
The MP is already said to be serving a five-day suspension from the House of Commons over an alleged breach of lobbying rules.
According to a report by UK broadcaster Sky News, Bridgen has repeatedly made and shared posts criticising COVID vaccination on his social media, with some of these posts claiming that they have been harming people.
However, the MP is said to have “crossed a line” on Wednesday after sharing an article by the website Zerohedge, alongside which he wrote: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust”.
The public representative has now had the Conservative Party whip suspended from him over the post pending an investigation.
“As a nation we should be very proud of what has been achieved through the vaccine programme,” Tory Chief Whip Simon Hart told Sky News in relation to the decision to suspend Bridgen.
“The vaccine is the best defence against COVID that we have,” he continued. “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,” he went on to say.
The decision will leave Bridgen serving effectively as an independent in the House of Commons until the party whip is restored to the MP, or he makes the decision to join another party.
Bridgen has since deleted the Tweet in question.
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