MP Andrew Bridgen Stripped of Tory Whip After Criticizing COVID-19 Vaccines

Andrew Bridgen, a file photo issued on Jan. 11, 2023. (PA)

An MP who has been calling for a halt to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine on social media has been expelled from the Conservative Party after he was told he had “crossed a line.”

On Wednesday Andrew Bridgen was suspended by the Tory chief whip for “spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.”

To lose a political party’s “whip” means to be expelled from the party altogether, meaning Bridgen is now suspended from sitting as a Conservative MP and must sit without affiliation.

Bridgen has been increasingly vocal in questioning the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Wednesday he posted an article on the vaccines, adding, “As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust.”

The post has since been deleted.

The post linked to an article authored by Professor Josh Guetzkow, a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Institute of Criminology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which was published by ZeroHedge.

Accusations of Anti-Semitism

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the comments were “utterly unacceptable.”

Sunak responded by “completely condemning those kinds of comments we saw this morning in the strongest possible terms.”

“Obviously it is utterly unacceptable to make linkages and use language like that and I’m determined that the scourge of anti-Semitism is eradicated,” he told MPs.

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the words were “disgusting, anti-Semitic, anti-vax conspiracy theories,” without referring directly to Bridgen.

Hancock added the comments were “not only deeply offensive but anti-scientific and have no place in this House or in our wider society.”

Molly, a 7-year-old labrador therapy dog, is stroked by Jake Gregory of Cornwall while Jake receives his COVID-19 vaccination at a temporary NHS COVID vaccination centre in Wadebridge, England, on Aug. 20, 2022. (Hugh Hastings/Getty Images)

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.”

Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on anti-Semitism, said 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,” added Mann.

‘Immediate’ Suspension

Bridgen also made a claim in a parliamentary debate in December, in which he called for an “immediate” suspension of the use of mRNA vaccines.

He claimed that a person within a “prominent leadership role” in the British Heart Foundation had sent non-disclosure agreements to researchers to prevent data on potential harms being made public.

In response, the British Heart Foundation released a statement on social media that said “they did not recognise these claims and strongly refute all allegations made about colleagues in senior leadership roles within the British Heart Foundation.”

In the parliamentary debate on vaccine harms, Bridgen said that there is a “key psychological barrier that has prevented these facts from being acknowledged by policymakers and taken up by the UK mainstream media.”

“That psychological phenomenon is wilful blindness. It is when human beings—including, in this case, institutions—turn a blind eye to the truth in order to feel safe, reduce anxiety, avoid conflict, and protect their prestige and reputations,” he added.

The MP recently posted that there were 50,000 excess deaths in 2022.

“So no mention of the elephant in the room? Is the failure of the NHS also responsible for the current excess deaths in all other countries that administered the gene therapy mRNA ‘vaccines’?”

“1,000 excess deaths each week as the NHS buckles,” he added.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a UK-based cardiologist, in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 29, 2022. (The Epoch Times)

‘Unprecedented’

Bridgen has also posted links to work by the British cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who has said that the harms associated with the mRNA shots are “unprecedented.”

“Once I had spent time critically analyzing the data on the COVID-19 vaccines, it became very clear to me that the efficacy of this particular novel technology, if you like—the mRNA products—was very, very poor, certainly in comparison to traditional vaccines, and the harms were unprecedented,” Malhotra said during a Dec. 10 interview for EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

Bridgen is currently serving a five-day suspension from Parliament for breaching parliamentary rules on registering financial interests.

The Epoch Times contacted Bridgen for comment.

PA Media contributed to this report.