Ex-Tory Andrew Bridgen joins Laurence Fox's Reclaim party

The North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen has joined Reclaim, a party set up by actor Laurence Fox.

Mr Bridgen was kicked out of the Conservative party last month after comparing Covid vaccines to the "biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust".

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called his comments "utterly unacceptable".

Announcing his decision to join Reclaim, Mr Bridgen said he had been "a prisoner" in the Conservatives.

"Now I have reclaimed my freedom," he told a press conference.

He also predicted he would not be the last MP to switch to Reclaim, saying: "This is just the beginning."

The Liberal Democrats' deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "Andrew Bridgen and his misinformation have absolutely no place in the House of Commons and now his defection to a failed fringe political party cements it.

"If Bridgen wants to sit as an MP for this party he should do the right thing - resign and call a by-election."

• MP expelled by Tories after Covid vaccine comments

• Andrew Bridgen's vaccine claims fact-checked

Mr Bridgen's decision to join Reclaim gives the party, which was established in 2020, its first MP.

Asked if he would now call a by-election, Mr Bridgen said there would be a general election next year and that he didn't want to put his constituents through "the rigour of having two elections in 12 months".

During the pandemic, Mr Bridgen was critical of the lockdown policy and vaccines passports, but praised the development of the Covid vaccine and tweeted that he had received his doses.

However, he has since become increasingly critical of vaccines making baseless claims including that vaccines were killing many people and that the damage was being covered up.

At first, he began highlighting real, but rare, cases of vaccine injury and misinterpreting real data to suggest these cases were more common than the research suggests.

His rhetoric increased and in January, posting a link to an article on vaccines he said: "As one consultant cardiologist said to me, this is the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust."

Extensive independent research shows that Covid vaccines are extremely effective at preventing deaths.

Introducing his new MP at a press conference in Parliament, Mr Fox described Mr Bridgen as a "decent father and successful businessman" who had been "cancelled and reviled".

"British people have a right to hear what Andrew Bridgen has to say and the Reclaim Party will make sure he is heard."

Mr Bridgen told the audience: "The truth is like a lion, I don't need to defend it. It can look after itself. All I ever did was set it free."

By joining Reclaim, he said he was joining a party that championed "science over dogma, public interest over vested interest, hope over fear, truth over lies, freedom over subservience".

Asked about the party's plans for the next election, Mr Fox said they would not stand in every constituency but were planning to target "problematic" MPs.