LONDON — Andrew Bridgen, the former Conservative MP who was booted out of the party for likening the COVID-19 vaccine to the Holocaust, is joining a political party set up by a controversial anti-woke actor.
Speaking at an event in Westminster on Wednesday, Bridgen confirmed he was switching to Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party — and hit out what he called the “chasm” between politicians and the people.
Reclaim, he said, respects “free speech as the basis for every aspect of our democracy and our society.”
Bridgen represented the Tories as the MP for North West Leicestershire from 2010 until earlier this year.
He was expelled from the Conservatives last month after using Twitter to share a link to a vaccine-related article on far-right blog ZeroHedge, accompanied by a claim that coronavirus jabs represented “the biggest crime against humanity since the holocaust.”
In a statement announcing his switch Wednesday, Bridgen said he would cross the floor of the House of Commons to sit on the opposition benches as “the first member of parliament for the Reclaim Party.” He added: “I say first because I have no doubt I will not be the last. This is just the beginning.”
Reclaim’s leader, Fox, starred in ITV detective drama “Lewis” and launched an ill-fated 2021 bid to become London mayor. He has been a long-standing critic of the U.K. government’s COVID-19 policies and courted frequent controversy for his views on LGBTQ+ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.
