Andrew Bridgen to sue Matt Hancock over criticism of Covid vaccine remarks

An independent MP who lost the Tory whip after appearing to compare Covid vaccines to the Holocaust is suing Matt Hancock for criticising his remarks.

Andrew Bridgen is suing the former health secretary for £100,000 over a tweet in which Hancock accused Bridgen of spouting “antisemitic, anti-vax, anti-scientific conspiracy theories” over the vaccine.

Bridgen was widely condemned for making the comments, by MPs and campaigners from all parties.

The MP for North West Leicestershire threatened to take legal action against Hancock if he did not publicly apologise within three days. He said in a tweet posted on 13 January that Hancock had “still not removed his defamatory tweet falsely alleging that I am antisemitic. I will allow Matt three days to apologise publicly for calling me an antisemite and racist or he will be contacted by my legal team.”

He tweeted on Thursday: “I can confirm that Matt Hancock had a legal letter before action from Bad Law team on my behalf regarding defamation on Monday.”

The legal action is being supported by the Reclaim party and the Bad Law Project.

The project, which is linked to the Reclaim party leader, Laurence Fox, claims to oppose “political ideology disguised as law”.

A spokesperson for Hancock said: “What Matt said was obviously not libellous and he stands by his comments.

“Rather than wasting his time and money on an absurd libel case he will undoubtedly lose, let’s hope Bridgen does the right thing and apologises for the hurt he’s caused and keeps his offensive view to himself in future.”

Bridgen has insisted that he is not antisemitic while also defending his language about the safety of coronavirus vaccines, claiming that his suspension from the Conservative parliamentary party “says much about the current state of our democracy”.

In the days after the original remarks, he also said he was not racist and was “speaking to a legal team who will commence action against those who have led the call suggesting that I am”.

In the Commons on Thursday, the Tory MP Sajid Javid suggested he was angered by Bridgen’s Holocaust reference.

Opening a Commons debate on Holocaust Memorial Day, Javid said: “Right now in the UK, we have seen a rise in anti-vaccine protesters carrying signs reading ‘vaccine Holocaust’ and wearing the Star of David.

“I must say, it does anger me that any member of this house would seek to connect the Holocaust with UK public health policy.”