Andrew Bridgen tells anti-vax crowd they will ‘have to take back control’ from ‘compromised’ MPs

Andrew Bridgen appeared at an anti-vax rally in London last week, where he said in a speech that his fellow MPs know about the dangers of vaccines but don’t speak out because they are “compromised”.

The former Conservative, who joined Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party last week, said it is not for parliament to “give away sovereignty to the World Health Organisation” and told the crowd “you’re going to have to take back control, there’s no doubt about that’. Bridgen also talked ominously about “those with blood on their hands that they will never be able to wash off”.

Bridgen was suspended and later permanently expelled from the Conservative Party last month following a tweet in which he compared the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust.

‘Take back control’

In April, Bridgen attended the Spotlight conference in Norway, which has links to the Swedish far-right and featured supposed experts promoting conspiracy theories around Covid-19, climate change and other issues. His travel and accommodation costs were met by the conference’s organisers, totalling £612.

A central theme of the event is the view that a secretive elite organisation is staging all the major crises of our time. A ticket to attend the conference, including a lunch buffet and access to the online community, cost 1250 Norwegian Krone, or around £93.

The event was organised by the European arm of an organisation called Children Health Defense (CHD) and the Binders Initiative. CHD was founded in 2011 by conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The group has campaigned against all forms of vaccine and Kennedy has on several occasions been criticised for comparing vaccination programs to the Holocaust.

Kennedy was included in a list of the most prominent online anti-vaxxers spreading misinformation by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate in 2021, while EUDisinfoLab has raised concerns about CHD’s expansion into Europe.

The Binders Initiative hosts conspiracy theories around climate change, radiation from wireless technology and vaccine harm. The website includes content from a prominent Swedish far-right media channel, Palaestra Media, run by a member of a militant fascist group known as the Nordic Resistance Movement.

Last weekend (13 May) Bridgen appeared at a rally in Trafalgar square organised by CHD called Truth Be Told, where speakers called for “those responsible” for the vaccine rollouts to be tried for crimes against humanity.

A statement on CHD’s website promoting the rally says: “We believe the UK and global governments have knowingly lied to their people and citizens of the world have been sacrificed on the alter(sic) of unfettered corporate greed.”

Appearing at the rally, Bridgen gave a brief speech in which he claimed that many MPs “know what’s going on” in relation to supposed vaccine harms.

He said: “I’m one of 650 MPs, there’s a handful of MPs speaking out, a lot more than that know what’s going on, some are compromised, some are scared, some know and think we’re not going to win and so they won’t sacrifice their career for what is the truth.

He continued: “What we’ve got now is a parliament that inflicts laws on the people… it’s not this generation or parliament to give away sovereignty to the WHO or anybody else… you’re going to have to take back control, there’s no doubt about that”.

Bridgen later referred to “those with blood on their hands that they will never be able to wash off”.