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Andrew Bridgen has been expelled from the Conservative Party after claiming Covid vaccines were the “biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”.
The MP was stripped of the Tory whip and forced to sit as an independent in January after Jewish groups demanded action over the “unconscionable” comment.
The Tories confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that Mr Bridgen had been formally expelled from the party on April 12. A spokesman said he “was expelled from the Conservative Party following the recommendation of a disciplinary panel. He has 28 days from this date to appeal”.
He vowed to fight the next election regardless, claiming he had been expelled “under false pretences” and citing a “culture of corruption, collusion and cover-ups” in the political system.
Mr Bridgen has been tipped to join Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party. Mr Fox called the MP a “hero” for asking “entirely justified questions” about the vaccine, and said his party would “take anybody” who believes that “without free speech you don’t live in a democracy”.
Reclaim is expected to make a statement on Mr Bridgen’s case shortly.
News of his expulsion sparked a row in a parliamentary dining room on Wednesday as Lee Anderson, the Tory party deputy chairman, clashed with Mr Bridgen and a former Conservative councillor.
Sebastian Leslie, whose daughter Rose Leslie played Ygritte in Game Of Thrones, said he told Mr Anderson: “Hold on, Lee” because “he was being so bloody rude to Andrew”, while Mr Anderson claimed Mr Bridgen had been “aggressive”.
Simon Hart, the Tory chief whip, said at the time of Mr Bridgen’s initial suspension that his Holocaust comment had “crossed a line” and caused “great offence”, while Rishi Sunak condemned the remark as “utterly unacceptable”.
Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said on Wednesday: “Inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust have no place in politics. Comparing the Covid vaccine to the Holocaust is highly irresponsible, and it is right that clear action has been taken.”
Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge also praised the “right decision”, writing on Twitter: “Comparing life-saving vaccines to the Holocaust is below the belt and has no place in our democracy.”
Mr Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire, previously denied that his comment was “racist” or “anti-Semitic”.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, he said: “My expulsion from the Conservative Party under false pretences only confirms the culture of corruption, collusion, and cover-ups which plagues our political system.
“I have been a vocal critic of the vaccine rollout, and the party have been sure to make an example of me. I am grateful for my new-found freedom and will continue to fight for justice for all those harmed, injured, and bereaved due to governmental incompetence.
“I will continue to serve my constituents as I was elected to do, and intend to stand again at the next election.”
Speaking to GB News, he said: “It’s deeply upsetting to be expelled from a party I’ve served for for several decades and campaigned hard for, but I barely recognise the Conservative Party at the moment.
“I put it to you there was no one else speaking out. And if that’s cost me my political career then so be it, quite honestly, because if I’ve saved the life or one child from being injured, that’s worth it, isn't it?”
Mr Fox told The Telegraph: “It’s an absolute crying shame that a party that defends free speech actually needs to exist in a world where a Conservative Party should be the ones protecting it. Every parliamentarian of every political persuasion should be behind Andrew Bridgen to the hilt. It’s appalling that they’re not.”
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Stephen Kinnock, the shadow immigration minister, told the House of Commons that "the dangerous crossings must be stopped" and Labour has a "comprehensive and workable five point plan which will defeat the people smugglers and fix our broken asylum system".
Turning to the Government's Illegal Migration Bill, Mr Kinnock said that while Tory MPs say they want to stop the boats the reality is they are "completely and utterly failing to do so".
He said: "Every single measure that ministers announce turns out to either be an expensive and unworkable headline chasing gimmick or a policy that succeeds only in making things worse, or indeed both.
"In the case of this legislative sham that we are debating today, this bigger backlog bill, it is definitely both."
Approximately half of asylum seekers who go through the Government's age verification process are "ultimately determined to be adults", Robert Jenrick told the House of Commons.
The immigration minister said: "We need to ensure that the UK does not become a destination that is specifically targeted by people smugglers specialising in children and families.
"I’m also acutely concerned that we balance that with the very real safeguarding risks posed by young adults pretending to be children. This is not a theoretical issue – it’s one that we see every day, unfortunately.
"Today, a very large number of young adults do pose as children. In fact, even with our current method of age assessment, around 50 per cent of those people who are assessed are ultimately determined to be adults."
The Government's Illegal Migration Bill is being debated in the House of Commons this afternoon, with the draft legislation due to clear its final hurdles in the Commons this evening before heading to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said during the start of the debate that migrants crossing the Channel in small boats from France are "essentially asylum shoppers".
He told the chamber: "The vast majority of those individuals coming on small boats are coming from an obvious place of safety in France with a fully functioning asylum system, so they’re choosing to make that additional crossing.
"They are essentially asylum shoppers, even if they ultimately came from a place of danger and they’re doing that because they believe the UK is a better place for them to make their claim and to build a future."
Heat pumps will still cost households thousands of pounds each even after they have used the Government’s troubled voucher scheme, a minister has admitted.
Lord Callanan, a junior energy minister, said some consumers would pay “as little” as £2,500 for the eco-friendly heating systems after a grant of £5,000 was taken into account.
His admission comes after critics blamed the high cost of heat pumps for the “embarrassingly” low uptake of the £150m-a-year boiler upgrade scheme.
You can read the full story here.
Andrew Bridgen has been expelled from the Conservative Party after he made controversial comments about coronavirus vaccines.
Mr Bridgen was stripped of the Tory whip and forced to sit as an independent MP in January after he tweeted claims that Covid vaccines were the “biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”.
A Conservative Party spokesman confirmed this afternoon that Mr Bridgen has now been formally kicked out of the party.
The spokesman said: “Mr Bridgen was expelled from the Conservative Party on 12th April following the recommendation of a disciplinary panel. He has 28 days from this date to appeal.”
Mr Bridgen said in a statement: “My expulsion from the Conservative Party under false pretences only confirms the culture of corruption, collusion and cover-ups which plagues our political system.”
Mr Bridgen said he “will continue to serve my constituents as I was elected to do and intend to stand again at the next election”.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will chair another Cobra meeting on the Sudan crisis this afternoon, Downing Street announced at lunchtime.
The British evacuation mission from Sudan has evacuated 301 people over four flights that have departed Khartoum, a total that will rise to eight by the end of today, Downing Street has said.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: "Currently we have evacuated 301 people. There is another flight loading right now. The response from Khartoum is running smoothly. Four flights have departed already, another is loading now.
"We’re calling everyone forward and we have no issue with capacity, and people are being processed smoothly. By the end of today we should have eight flights (in total)."
The "majority" of the people on the planes are British nationals but some will be allies’ citizens, the spokesman said.
Rishi Sunak has refused a challenge to apologise for the UK’s role in historical slavery and rejected a call to commit to reparations when asked in the Commons at PMQs.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: "Prime ministers and heads of state have only ever expressed sorrow or deep regret. These are not sentiments that are befitting one of the greatest atrocities in human history.
"There has been no acknowledgement of the wealth that has been amassed or the fact that our country took out the largest loan it ever has to pay off the slave owners, and not the enslaved."
She asked: "Will he do what Bernie Grant asked all those years ago, what I have asked, and what countless others have asked since, and offer a full and meaningful apology for our country’s role in slavery and colonialism, and commit to reparatory justice?"
Mr Sunak replied: "No. What I think our focus should now be on doing is, of course, understanding our history and all its parts, not running away from it, but right now making sure that we have a society which is inclusive and tolerant of people from all backgrounds.
"That’s something that we on this side of the House are committed to doing and will continue to deliver, but trying to unpick our history is not the right way forward, and it’s not something that we will focus our energies on."
Rishi Sunak claimed Sir Keir Starmer’s "record on women is questionable at best" as he talked about the Labour leader's past comments about trans women.
Speaking during PMQs, Tory former minister Tim Loughton said: "Yesterday the Opposition grabbed a crude headline about teaching boys to have respect for women, an important issue I’m sure the Prime Minister will agree.
"Given that the Leader of the Opposition apparently doesn’t know what a woman is, that he won’t stand up to defend women in his own party voicing views on women’s rights and, according to his own frontbench, failed to prosecute rapists when he was in charge as DPP (director of public prosecutions), does (Mr Sunak) think the Labour Party are in any position to teach anyone about respect for women, and is irony dead?"
Mr Sunak replied: "[Mr Loughton] is absolutely right. The Leader of the Opposition’s record on women is questionable at best.
"Before Labour do start preaching about this issue, they should work out the answer to one very simple question: I’m certain what a woman is, is he?"
Sir Keir Starmer claimed that under the Tories people are "paying more and more and getting less and less".
The Labour leader said: "This Prime Minister is so removed from the country that he boasted that he didn't know a single working class person. So insulated from reality that he proudly told a Tory garden party how he had moved money from poor areas and handed it to rich ones.
"So out of touch that he looks at a petrol pump and a debit card like they have just arrived from Mars. Is it any wonder that he smiles his way through the cost-of-living crisis while putting other people's taxes up? Is it any wonder he doesn't have a clue how food prices are hammering families across the country? And is it any wonder that under him people are paying more and more and getting less and less?"
Mr Sunak replied: "Just look at what has happened just in this week, where the Labour Party have put themselves. On Monday… they decided to side with extremist protesters. Just yesterday they sided with polluters. And tonight we will see them siding with the people smugglers.
"I will tell you this, whilst we are in the business of sending back the 1,000th illegal migrant from Albania, we are delivering cost of living payments to millions of households just yesterday and today we have announced we have put 20,000 more police officers on the street. We are siding with the British people, that is what the Conservative Government does."
Sticking on the theme of scrapping non-dom tax status, Sir Keir Starmer asked Rishi Sunak: "Why is the Prime Minister telling people across the country that their taxes must go up so that his can stay low?"
Mr Sunak said: "The facts are these: The very wealthiest pay more tax and the poorest pay less tax today than under any year of the last Labour government."
Sir Keir Starmer labelled Rishi Sunak "Mr 24 tax rises" as he labelled the Prime Minister "out of touch" over his comments about the state of the economy.
Mr Sunak said there are "record numbers of people in work, inequality lower, the number of people in poverty lower".
Sir Keir challenged Mr Sunak to scrap non-dom tax status to pay for more help for working people and to boost the NHS.
But Mr Sunak said Sir Keir had already spent the money generated by the proposed axing of non-dom status on "five different things".
He said it was the "same old Labour Party, they are always running out of other people's money".
Sir Keir Starmer suggested Rishi Sunak was "clueless" about the lives of ordinary people as the Labour leader continued to question the Prime Minister on the state of the economy.
Sir Keir asked: "I am genuinely fascinated to know, does he really think that everything is fine or is he just clueless about life outside of his bubble?"
Mr Sunak said: "Because of the actions that we have taken… a single mother working full time on ther national living wage this year will get £1,300 more support from this Government.
"A working couple on low income with two children will get £1,800. That is what delivering for working Britain looks like, but if he has any actual ideas for the economy he should say so because all I hear from the party opposite is more spending, more borrowing, higher inflation, higher interest rates. It is the same old Labour Party."
Sir Keir Starmer told Rishi Rishi Sunak that "they [the Tories] like to pretend that it was all just one week of madness last autumn" in reference to the economic turmoil surrounding the mini-Budget.
The Labour leader said the "truth is it has been 13 years of failure" on the economy, with the Tories having rolled out "24 Tory tax rises in three years".
He asked how a "low growth, high tax economy is working for working people".
Mr Sunak hit back and said that under the Conservative Party the national living wage is at "record levels" and the Government has handed out "generous" cost of living support.
"We are supporting working people," he said.
Rishi Sunak is now on his feet in the House of Commons.
The Prime Minister started by giving MPs a brief update on the Sudan airlift.
Mr Sunak said he wanted to "pay tribute to all those carrying out this complex operation".
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police Commissioner, accused the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party of being “personally offensive” during a clash this morning.
Lee Anderson asked Sir Mark about the approach taken by the Met when it comes to handling protesters as the latter gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee.
The exchange ended with Sir Mark refusing to answer Mr Anderson’s questions. Mr Anderson said: “I think you might want to believe, Commissioner, that you are doing your job correctly, I don’t think you are.
“I am just going to ask one more question, make one more statement, because I feel like I am wasting my time with you, to be honest.
“You said you took five years out of the force, there is probably people listening to this today wish it was a lot longer and I am one of them. Do you think you have got the confidence of the public?”
Sir Mark replied: “I am not going to sit here, if people want to be personally offensive then write it in newspapers but I am not going to answer those questions.”
The UK should not be seen as in "some kind of competition" over its rescue effort in Sudan amid reports 39 evacuees were on board the first flight out of the country.
Suella Braverman insisted the Government faced a "very different situation" compared to other nations as it has a "larger cohort" of British nationals in Sudan.
It comes after Germany's foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin would not leave civilians "to their own devices", in an apparent swipe at the UK's approach.
You can follow live updates on the Sudan crisis here.
The UK will miss out on more than £3bn of tourist spending this year as “Europe eats Britain's lunch” after a tax raid on travellers by Rishi Sunak, new data suggests.
Figures show that spending by visitors from the US and Gulf states has surged in France and Italy while barely reaching pre-pandemic levels in the UK after the Government imposed VAT on their purchases of goods.
Separately, official figures showed that the Government has £13bn of headroom for tax cuts after public sector borrowing came in lower than expected.
The data comes amid a growing political backlash against the VAT rules, which were introduced by Mr Sunak in 2020, imposing a 20pc sales tax on tourists visiting Britain from outside the European Union.
You can read the full story here.
Suella Braverman said that "policing must remain open to the best and the bravest, whether or not they have a degree" as she welcomed the Government hitting its target of recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers (see the post below at 09.39).
Delivering a speech at The Public Safety Foundation in central London, the Home Secretary stressed the need for more "common sense policing".
She said: "Common sense policing means officers maintaining a relentless focus on fighting crime, catching criminals and keeping the public safe."
Ms Braverman said that the "public wants to see more bobbies on the beat and so do I, it is central to common sense policing".
Instead of welcoming today’s news on 20,000 extra police officers and backing our police, Labour is pointing to a reduction in police numbers back in 2010.
But the British people won’t forget that Labour left us 2010 with “no money”
Great news to see our manifesto pledge made! pic.twitter.com/jFKUALozBg
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, accused the Tories of "trying to take" the country "for fools" over the police recruitment target.
She tweeted: "Tories are trying to take country for fools on policing. They CUT 20,000 police officers. Now they’re just trying to patch up their own cuts.
"But there are still 6,000 fewer police on the beat and 9,000 fewer police than if they’d increased with population growth since 2010."
The Government's "boasts" about hitting a police recruitment target will "ring hollow" for the victims of crime and communities which have seen community policing "decimated", according to the Liberal Democrats.
Alistair Carmichael, the party's home affairs spokesman, said: "Suella Braverman’s boasts will ring hollow for communities that have seen community policing decimated under this government. Crime victims are waiting hours for police to turn up while the vast majority of burglaries go unsolved.
"The Conservatives have taken thousands of community support officers off the streets and bogged down local forces in unnecessary tasks. They can’t even get the basics right on crime.
"The Home Secretary can’t hide behind today’s statistics. She must finally commit to a return to community policing without delay. Otherwise, it’s just smoke and mirrors."
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said the Government hitting its police recruitment target represented an "historic moment" (see the post below at 09.39).
She said: "This is an historic moment for our country. We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people which means more police on the beat preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.
"These new officers are changing the face of policing. They are more representative of the communities they serve and this offers a unique chance to deliver the highest standards and common sense policing expected by the public."
𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃: 20,000 new police officers now on our streets to cut crime, crack down on anti-social behaviour, and keep our streets safe. pic.twitter.com/qKczP3bOPf
Rishi Sunak welcomed the Government delivering on its pledge to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers (see the post below at 09.39).
The Prime Minister said: "When I stood at the steps of Downing Street six months ago, I made clear that I will do whatever it takes to build a better future for everyone in the UK, with stronger communities and safer streets.
"At the heart of that pledge is recruiting more police officers in than at any time in our history, and today we have delivered on that promise. Thousands of officers already out in our communities, tackling crime and keeping the public safe."
The Home Office said the overall figure for the number of police officers in England and Wales is now at its highest level "on record since comparable records began".
The overall number published by the Home Office this morning was 149,572.
That is 3,542 – 2.4 per cent – higher than the previous peak of 146,030 police officers in post which was recorded at the end of March 2010.
The Government has hit its target of recruiting 20,000 new police officers in England and Wales, Home Office statistics published this morning have shown.
Some 20,951 additional officers have been recruited since the Government started its recruitment drive, fulfilling the Tories' 2019 general election manifesto pledge.
It means the overall provisional headcount for police officers in England and Wales at the end of March was 149,572.
Suella Braverman accused the European Court of Human Rights of "undermining a democratically-elected government" after her plan to deport migrants to Rwanda was blocked last year.
The Home Secretary also said that if the Government's Illegal Migration Bill makes it onto the statute book there would be no limit on the number of people who could be deported to Rwanda.
She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "If you look at Australia – once they were able to swiftly detain and remove people from Australian territory, their numbers of illegal arrivals fell dramatically in a relatively short period of time. That’s why deterrence is a key ingredient.
"It is an uncapped scheme so we are not putting a limit on the number of people who can be relocated to Rwanda. We saw last year an unacceptable situation whereby the Home Secretary made a decision to relocate people to Rwanda and that decision was upheld in the courts, injunctions were refused by the English courts and, at the eleventh hour, pursuant to an opaque process in which the UK was not represented, a judge in Strasbourg overruled that decision, undermining a democratically-elected government and a decision to take appropriate action. We want to avoid a re-run of that scenario."
The Home Office will publish new data at 9.30am showing whether the Government has hit its target of recruiting 20,000 new police officers in England and Wales – a Tory manifesto pledge.
However, critics have pointed out that the plan simply replaces many of the officers who left forces since 2010 because of cuts.
Suella Braverman said this morning that the Government is "on track" to hit the 20,000 number and insisted there would then be a record number of police officers in England and Wales.
She said: "If we achieve that goal, we will be in excess of 2010 numbers, we will be at record levels, we will have the highest number of police officers in history in England and Wales. I think that’s a huge achievement.”
Suella Braverman declined to say how many extra detention places would be needed for migrants under the Government’s plans to crackdown on Channel crossings.
The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that "some hundreds, thousands" of extra places would be needed but she did not spell out exactly how many.
She said: "We’ve got an existing detention capacity of 1-2,000 places at the moment. We need to increase that – I’m not going to give you a precise figure.
"But what I’m saying is, we don’t need to increase it by 45,000 [the number who arrived by small boat in 2022], no one is saying that we need 45,000 or 100,000 new detention places.
"That’s because we want to design a scheme whereby if you arrive here illegally you will be detained and thereafter relocated to a safe country like Rwanda, or your home country if it’s safe."
MPs debating and voting on the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill this afternoon have been urged to "bear in mind" the UK’s human rights commitments.
Marcial Boo, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was "concerned" that the Bill could put the UK in breach of international obligations.
He said: "We are concerned that the Bill would risk breaching international obligations. What we are advising MPs in passing the legislation is just that they bear in mind our international human rights obligations and that they consider those matters when debating the legislation today.
"What we have said to MPs is that we are concerned that there are risks, particularly to victims of trafficking and children, and we want to make sure that human rights are applied universally because they are for everyone."
Approximately 200 to 300 British nationals have now been evacuated from Sudan as part of the ongoing UK airlift, Suella Braverman said.
The Home Secretary told Sky News: "We commenced an evacuation mission in the last 24-48 hours and we expect there to be approximately 200 to 300 people who have been relocated from Sudan in the last few flights.
"We are now commencing an extensive operation, working with over 1,000 personnel from the RAF and the armed forces."
The UK Government has faced some criticism over the speed of its response to the crisis with other countries having rescued their citizens before Britain.
But Ms Braverman rebuffed the criticism this morning and said "I don’t think it is right to make this some kind of competition".
It is not inevitable that the crisis in Sudan will result in greater numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats, Suella Braverman said this morning.
Asked if she believed the fighting in Sudan would cause an uptick in crossings, the Home Secretary told Sky News: "I wouldn’t want to necessarily make that an inevitably, there is a global migration crisis…"
Suella Braverman said it was "totally unacceptable" for judges in Strasbourg to issue rulings which "undermine" UK decisions on tackling the migrant Channel crossings crisis as she defended the Government's plans to toughen up the Illegal Migration Bill.
MPs will today vote on giving ministers the power to ignore Strasbourg rulings which block migrant removal flights.
Asked how confident she is that the plan will work, the Home Secretary told Sky News: "Well, we have introduced our Bill, it is now nearing completion in the Commons.
"Today is our final stage of debate and we have introduced some clauses to enable a greater decision making power on the part of the home secretary so we avoid a scenario that we saw last June whereby the home secretary made a decision to relocate people from the United Kingdom, people who had arrived here illegally, to Rwanda, English courts had upheld that decision and at the eleventh hour a judge in Strasbourg, pursuant to an opaque process whereby the United Kingdom was not represented, undermined that decision.
"That is totally unacceptable from a democratic point of view and we have introduced a clause which enables the home secretary to consider the case on its individual merits and have a discretion to possibly avoid that scenario replaying again."
Migrants who arrive in the UK on small boats are "criminals", Suella Braverman said this morning as the Government presses ahead with its crackdown on Channel crossings.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, said in a speech yesterday that "those crossing tend to have completely different lifestyles and values to those in the UK".
Ms Braverman, the Home Secretary, was asked this morning what Mr Jenrick had meant and she told Sky News: "People who are coming here illegally are breaking our laws. They are criminals and they don’t have a right to be here.
"That is at odds with our values of upholding the rule of law, generosity and helping…"
The comments came as the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill returns to the House of Commons this afternoon when it is expected to clear its final hurdles before heading to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.
Ministers have proposed a number of changes to toughen up the draft legislation, including powers to allow the Government to ignore rulings by European judges which block migrant removal flights.