Third of Reform UK’s council leaders have expressed vaccine-sceptic views | Reform UK

A third of Reform UK council leaders across the country have expressed skeptical views towards vaccines, openly questioning the public health measures that keep millions of people safe.

The leaders of four of the 12 councils where the Reform Party is in control or the largest party – Kent, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Durham – are among the party members who have publicly criticized vaccinations.

Health Minister Zubir Ahmed, an NHS vascular and transplant surgeon, called their comments “dangerous and completely irresponsible”, saying politicians who cast doubt on vaccines risked exposing children and vulnerable people to harm.

It comes after a controversial doctor, cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, used his main stage speech at the Reform Party conference in September to claim the Covid vaccine had caused cancer in the royal family, sparking immediate condemnation.

Malhotra, a senior adviser to vaccine-skeptic U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, has long wavered publicly about Covid vaccines, saying they pose a greater threat than the virus itself — a view repeatedly refuted by fact-checkers.

Reform chairman David Bull described Malhotra as the man who “worked with me to write Reform UK’s health policy”. Vaccination hesitancy, however, appears to be prevalent across the party. Nigel Farage, his deputy Richard Tice and Tory defector Danny Kruger have all expressed doubts.

First Reform council leader Linden Kemkaran, who leads Kent County Council, suggested in September that the party should carry out an investigation into whether Covid vaccines were linked to cancer, even though there is no medical evidence to support the idea.

She told Times Radio that the Reform Party was “not afraid to debate issues that other people have decided should be kept quiet” and that a link was “something we should talk about.” Certainly “.

The party’s Worcestershire leader, Jo Monk, told a council meeting in November that she recognized the role vaccinations had played in preventing disease, but “remained undecided on some vaccinations”, sparking concern from opposition councillors.

“My perspective is shaped by my personal experiences, my reactions to vaccines, as well as conversations with several doctors, who themselves have varied views on this topic,” she said.

Warwickshire County Council leader George Finch voiced his doubts about the latest chickenpox vaccine on LBC radio in August, saying “the anti-chickenpox parties are brushing it off” and that the virus was “a part of life”.

Government ministers hope adding the chickenpox vaccine to the childhood immunization program will protect some young people from serious complications from the virus. It could also reduce the time parents take time off work to care for their infected children.

The Reform leader of Durham County Council, Andrew Husband, said in a since-deleted post on X in October 2023 that vaccines were “horrible, like all crimes against humanity”.

Ahmed, who also works in Glasgow’s NHS, condemned the comments. “These are dangerous and completely irresponsible comments from senior British reformist politicians,” he said.

“Vaccinations save lives and politicians who cast doubt on them risk putting children and vulnerable people at risk. At a time when our NHS is under enormous pressure, sowing distrust in proven public health measures is reckless.

“The British public deserve better than conspiracy theories, snake oil and misinformation from those in positions of power. »

Amid growing skepticism about vaccines, public health chiefs have launched national campaigns to increase childhood vaccinations, particularly as concerns grow that vaccination rates are falling and serious diseases such as measles re-emerge in England.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Reform UK strongly supports proven vaccination programs that protect public health. But as our advisers have pointed out, forcing blind obedience to every vaccine without question or evidence erodes trust, sabotages successful rollouts and allows misinformation to spread.”