Conservatives right to remove whip from Andrew Bridgen MP after he compared COVID-19 vaccines to the Holocaust
The Conservatives have removed the whip from Andrew Bridgen MP after he appeared to compare COVID-19 vaccines to the Holocaust.
In a tweet published this morning, Mr Bridgen posted an article about the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the lead American agency handling the US response to the pandemic. The article analysed reports made to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System which apparently indicate side-effects of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
In his tweet captioning the article, he wrote: “As one consultant cardiologist said to me this is the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust.”
During and since the pandemic, anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination networks have become known as hotbeds of antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes, including baseless and grotesque allusions to the Holocaust.
The Conservatives have quickly removed the whip from Mr Bridgen, but the tweet is still live at time of writing. Simon Hart, the Chief Whip, said: “Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives. I am removing the Whip from Andrew Bridgen with immediate effect, pending a formal investigation.”
In 2014, Mr Bridgen attracted controversy when he suggested that “the political system of the world’s superpower and our great ally the United States is very susceptible to well-funded powerful lobbying groups and the power of the Jewish lobby in America.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The Jewish community has sadly become used to ugly and frankly moronic comparisons between the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Holocaust. Regardless of one’s sentiments about the appropriateness or efficacy of lockdowns and vaccines, there is no equation with the deliberate and industrial slaughter of six million innocent men, women and children simply because they were Jewish. For a senior backbench politician not to understand this elemental fact is a poor reflection on the Conservatives and British politics.
“Mr Bridgen must immediately apologise and demonstrate that he understands why his tweet is so appalling. The Party is right to withhold the whip, and it must now disclose what further steps it intends to take.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
