Senior doctor threatens to sue Rees-Mogg after anti-vaxxer remarks ... David Nicholl accuses Commons leader of abusing parliamentary privilege
Rees-Mogg accuses doctor of 'fearmongering' about potential no-deal deaths – video
A senior doctor who helped draw up government medical plans for a no-deal Brexit has threatened to sue Jacob Rees-Mogg after the Commons leader compared him to the disgraced anti-vaxxer Andrew Wakefield.
Rees-Mogg told MPs that in warning about the possible effects of a no-deal Brexit on medical supplies, David Nicholl was being as irresponsible as Wakefield, who was struck off the medical register in 2010 after suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Nicholl, a consultant neurologist who drew up a risk register of epilepsy and neurology drugs for the government’s Operation Yellowhammer no-deal plans, said Rees-Mogg had abused parliamentary privilege, which means MPs cannot be sued over comments made in the Commons.
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“I will sue him if he repeats what he said outside parliament,” Nicholl said. “This is nothing really to do with Brexit, this is about bulling up any experts and bullying of whistleblowers.”
Rees-Mogg’s comments, made as he addressed the Commons on Wednesday during his duties as the leader of the house, provoked gasps from the opposition benches and were condemned by the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) and several MPs.
The pair first clashed on Monday on LBC radio, when Nicholl challenged Rees-Mogg to say how many people he would accept could die because of a lack of access to drugs and radioactive isotopes.
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Rees-Mogg called Nicholl “deeply irresponsible” and said his comments were “typical of remainer campaigners”.
In the Commons on Thursday, Labour’s shadow leader of the Commons, Valerie Vaz, raised Rees-Mogg’s comments, saying: “I think the leader of the house owes an apology to Dr David Nicholl.”
Rees-Mogg said no-deal preparations were in place, and added: “But yes, a lot of remainers wish to make our skin crawl. And I’m afraid it seems to me that Dr David Nicholl is as irresponsible as Dr Wakefield.”
He continued: “What he had to say – I will repeat it – is as irresponsible as Dr Wakefield, in threatening that people will die because we leave the European Union. What level of irresponsibility was that?”
David Nicholl
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David Nicholl drew up a risk register of epilepsy and neurology drugs for the government’s Operation Yellowhammer no-deal plans. Photograph: WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy
Nicholl told the Guardian: “I would have happily forgave him his response on Monday on LBC, given that I was sprung on him by the radio station. But in this case he has used his parliamentary privilege to bully me.
“Fundamentally this is about experts giving advice to the government and then being ignored and derided.”
Helena McKeown, the chair of the BMA, said in a tweet that it was “dangerous behaviour by Jacob Rees-Mogg, slandering the highly respected NHS consultant and whistleblower David Nicholl”.
Alistair Burt, the ex-Foreign Office and health minister who was among the 21 Conservative MPs to lose the party whip this week after rebelling over Brexit, said: “As a former minister fully aware of the worldwide risks to health security from Wakefield’s anti-vax consequences, I am distressed such a comparison could come from a government minister in the UK.”
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said Rees-Mogg’s comments were “offensive, irresponsible garbage”. He tweeted: “His casual belittling of experienced, medical opinion really is shameful and straight out of the Trump playbook.”
Sarah Wollaston, the former GP who left the Conservatives and now sits as an independent, tweeted: “Absolutely disgusting for Jacob Rees-Mogg to slander such a highly respected NHS consultant and whistleblower … from behind the cowardly screen of parliamentary privilege.”
Phillip Lee, another doctor-turned MP who quit the Conservatives for the Liberal Democrats this week, called the comments “shocking and ignorant”. He said: “He should apologise in the house for impugning the professional reputation of an experienced medical consultant.”
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