Andrew Bridgen MP expected to join Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party

Andrew Bridgen MP is set to join Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party following his expulsion from the Conservative Party after comparing Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust.

The MP for North West Leicestershire is expected to be announced as the first representative of Mr Fox’s party in the House of Commons at a press conference on Wednesday, the PA news agency understands.

Mr Bridgen was stripped of the Tory party whip in January after making the vaccines comparison to the Nazi genocide in the Second World War, claiming coronavirus jabs were “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust”.

After an investigation, it was decided to expel him from the governing party last month.

It was understood that the Conservative disciplinary panel found against him for the vaccines claim.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the comments as “utterly unacceptable”.

A regular vaccines critic, Mr Bridgen accused the Tories of kicking him out “under false pretences” and had stated his intention to run against the party at the next election, as he hit out at “corruption, collusion and cover-ups”.

Earlier this year, Mr Bridgen was handed a five-day suspension for breaking the MPs’ code of conduct banning lobbying.

He was found to have committed a series of breaches including an “unacceptable attack upon the integrity” of then-standards commissioner Kathryn Stone.