Former Tory MP Andrew Bridgen expelled permanently from party

In a statement, Bridgen said his expulsion ‘only confirms the culture of corruption, collusion and cover-ups which plagues our political system.’ Photograph: Beresford Hodge/PA

Andrew Bridgen, the formerly Conservative MP who lost the Tory whip after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust, has been expelled permanently from the party.

Bridgen, who has been in parliament since 2010, has sat as an independent since his much-condemned vaccine comment in January, which followed an apparent embrace of wider Covid conspiracy theories by the North West Leicestershire MP.