A third of Reform UK’s council leaders across the country have expressed vaccine-sceptic views, openly questioning public health measures that keep millions safe.
The leaders of four of the 12 councils where Reform is in charge or the largest party – Kent, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Durham – are among those in the party who have publicly criticised vaccinations.
The health minister Zubir Ahmed, an NHS transplant and vascular surgeon, described their remarks as “dangerous and utterly irresponsible”, saying that politicians who cast doubt on vaccines risked exposing children and vulnerable people to harm.
It comes after a controversial doctor, the cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, used his main-stage speech at Reform’s conference in September to air a claim that the Covid vaccine had caused cancer in the royal family, which drew immediate condemnation.
Malhotra, a senior adviser to the vaccine-sceptic US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy, has long been publicly hesitant about Covid vaccines, claiming they pose a greater threat than the virus itself – a view debunked repeatedly by factcheckers.
Reform’s chair, David Bull, described Malhotra as the man who “worked with me to write Reform UK’s health policy”. Vaccine hesitancy, however, appears to run throughout the party. Nigel Farage, his deputy, Richard Tice, and the Conservative defector Danny Kruger have all raised doubts.
The first Reform council leader, Linden Kemkaran, who runs Kent county council, suggested in September that the party should hold an inquiry into whether Covid vaccines were linked to cancer, even though there is no medical evidence to back up the notion.
She told Times Radio that Reform was “not afraid to debate topics that other people have decided must be silenced” and that a link was “something we should talk about. Definitely”.
The party’s leader in Worcestershire, Jo Monk, told a council meeting in November that she acknowledged the role vaccinations had played in disease prevention, but “remains undecided on certain immunisations”, prompting concern among opposition councillors.
“My perspective is shaped by personal experiences, reactions to vaccines myself, as well as conversations with several medical practitioners, who themselves hold a range of views on this topic,” she said.
The Warwickshire county council leader, George Finch, shared doubts about the latest chickenpox vaccine on LBC radio in August, saying “chickenpox parties get it out of the way” and that the virus was “part of life”.
Government ministers hope that adding the chickenpox jab to the childhood vaccination programme will protect some youngsters from severe complications from the virus. It could also reduce the amount of time parents take off work to look after their infected children.
Reform’s leader of Durham county council, Andrew Husband, said in a since-deleted post on X in October 2023 that vaccines were “horrific, like all crimes against humanity”.
Ahmed, who also works in the NHS in Glasgow, condemned the remarks. “These are dangerous and utterly irresponsible comments from senior Reform UK politicians,” he said.
“Vaccinations save lives and politicians who cast doubt on them risk exposing children and vulnerable people to harm. At a time when our NHS is under huge pressure, sowing mistrust in proven public health measures is reckless.
“The British public deserves better than conspiracy theories, snake oil and misinformation from those in positions of power.”
Against a backdrop of mounting vaccine scepticism, public health chiefs have launched national campaigns to drive up childhood vaccinations in particular as concerns grow over falling uptake and serious diseases such as measles re-emerge in England.
A Reform UK spokesman said: “Reform UK strongly supports proven vaccination programmes that protect public health. But as our councillors have highlighted, forcing blind obedience to every vaccine without question or evidence erodes trust, sabotages successful rollouts, and allows misinformation to spread.”
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