Jewish groups condemn Andrew Bridgen over 'irresponsible' comparison between Covid vaccine rollout and the Holocaust

11 January 2023, 11:24 | Updated: 11 January 2023, 13:14

Jewish groups have condemned Andrew Bridgen over his 'highly irresponsible' comparison between the Covid vaccine rollout and the Holocaust.

MP Andrew Bridgen had the Tory whip removed after claiming the vaccines were "causing serious harms" and saying it was "the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust".

Chief Whip Simon Hart said: “Andrew Bridgen has crossed a line, causing great offence in the process.

"As a nation we should be very proud of what has been achieved through the vaccine programme.

"The vaccine is the best defence against Covid that we have.

"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."

Holocaust Education Trust chief executive Karen Pollock said Mr Bridgen's comment was "wholly inappropriate", saying in a statement: "For these horrors to be co-opted by anti-vaxxers once again is appalling.

"Andrew Bridgen’s words were highly irresponsible, wholly inappropriate and an elected politician should know better.”

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Other MPs have also been quick to condemn Mr Bridgen, with former Tory cabinet minister Simon Clarke tweeting: "This is disgraceful."

Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: "A lot of Jewish people and other like-minded decent folk would find this incredibly offensive. Name the cardiologist!!"

After the whip was removed, he added: "If this deters people from being vaccinated and causes deaths as a direct consequence, he’ll have blood on his hands. His tweets are wholly irresponsible."

Christian Wakeford, the Labour MP for Bury South who defected from the Tories, said: "Fake news and scaremongering on vaccines is bad enough but to invoke the Holocaust during the month of Holocaust Memorial Day is despicable."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also appeared to condemn the comments made during PMQs, saying "it is utterly unacceptable to make linkages and use language like that".

Conservative former Cabinet minister Matt Hancock asked at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons: "Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the disgusting, antisemitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories that have been promulgated online this morning are not only deeply offensive but anti-scientific, and have no place in this House or in our wider society?"

Mr Sunak said: "Can I join with my right honourable friend in completely condemning those types of comments that we saw this morning in the strongest possible terms.

"Obviously it is utterly unacceptable to make linkages and use language like that.

"I'm determined that the scourge of antisemitism is eradicated. It has absolutely no place in our society. I know that the previous few years have been challenging for the Jewish community and I never want them to experience anything like that ever again."

Lord Mann, the Government's independent adviser on antisemitism, said Andrew Bridgen should be barred from standing for the Tories at the next election.

"There is no possibility that Bridgen can be allowed to stand at the next election," he said.

"He cannot claim that he didn't realise the level of offence that his remarks cause."

Tory peer Lord Pickles, the UK special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, said throughout the pandemic "we saw various anti-vac groups compare themselves to victims of the Nazis, it was distasteful then and remains so".

"The act of murdering millions of innocent people does not lend itself to modern comparisons, it trivialises and distorts the Holocaust," he said.

"People in authority have a duty to use language responsible, Mr Bridgen has failed that test, and I welcome the removal of the Conservative whip from him."

The North West Leicestershire MP was also suspended from the Commons for five sitting days from Tuesday, after he was found to have displayed a "very cavalier" attitude to the rules in a series of lobbying breaches.

The backbencher should have told ministers and officials about his relationship with Cheshire-based firm Mere Plantations as he made multiple representations.

Mr Bridgen also called into question the integrity of standards commissioner Kathryn Stone on the basis of "wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations", the standards committee found.

He appealed against the recommendation to suspend him, but Parliament's Independent Expert Panel dismissed it "on all grounds".