Mr. Bridgen is suing the former health secretary after Mr. Hancock questioned his claim that the vaccination program was “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”
Mr. Hancock denounced the comment as “disgusting and dangerous,” adding that it was “antisemitic.” As a result, Mr. Bridgen made the decision to sue “to clear his name.”
The accusation, according to Christopher Newman, diminished Mr. Bridgen’s reputation in the public view to a “devastating extent” during a hearing on Wednesday.
“We say that the gravity of what was said, even on the defendant’s meaning, was very serious indeed,” he stated.
A falsehood concerning antisemitism is very dangerous.”
“We live in a society where racism is not just undesirable, but it is illegal according to law,” he said. defining antisemitism as a particular kind of racism that is equally harmful as all other forms of racism.”
One of the case’s preliminary concerns was whether Mr. Hancock’s post qualified as an opinion or a statement of fact, and Mrs. Justice Collins Rice was requested to rule on this.
On January 11, 2023, Mr. Hancock posted a video of himself in the House of Commons asking Prime Minister Rishi Sunak a question.
