FORMER Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has formally announced that he is joining the Reclaim Party, saying there is a “chasm” between Parliament and the people.
He was expelled from the Conservative party last month after comparing Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust earlier this year and will now become the first parliamentarian for Laurence Fox's party.
The North West Leicestershire MP - who has been sitting as an independent - said at an event in Westminster: “There is a huge chasm now between our Parliament and what goes on in Westminster and the people.”
He said he was joining Fox’s party “because they respect free speech as the basis for every aspect of our democracy and our society”.
Bridgen was suspended by the Tory party in January after posting that vaccines against the virus were "causing serious harms" and saying the roll-out programme was "the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust".
Tory Chief Whip Simon Hart said at the time Bridgen had "crossed a line, causing great offence in the process".
It was understood the Conservative disciplinary panel found against him for the vaccines claim.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the comments as “utterly unacceptable”.
A regular vaccines critic, Bridgen accused the Tories of kicking him out “under false pretences” and had stated his intention to run against the party at the next election, as he hit out at “corruption, collusion and cover-ups”.
Earlier this year, he was also handed a five-day suspension for breaking the MPs’ code of conduct banning lobbying.
He was found to have committed a series of breaches including an “unacceptable attack upon the integrity” of then-standards commissioner Kathryn Stone.
