In the battle for ‘free speech’, what do we do about MPs who... make things up?

Three months ago today, Andrew Bridgen stood up in the chamber of the House of Commons and spread anti-vax propaganda. He quoted a controversial doctor who called for “complete cessation of the administration of the Covid mRNA vaccines for everyone because of clear and robust data of significant harms and little ongoing benefit”.

Since then, two other MPs have, from the green benches, made easily disprovable claims that have become increasingly popular in far-right, conspiracy-laden online circles.

In February, Nick Fletcher asked for time to be set aside in the Commons “for a debate on the international socialist concept of so-called 15-minute cities”. “Fifteen-minute cities will cost us our personal freedom”, he added, “and that cannot be right.”

For the avoidance of doubt, “15-minute cities” was originally an urban planning concept that suggested that services should be spread out across agglomerations. The name comes from the belief that everyone should live within 15 minutes of amenities, schools and parks.

In quite an absurd turn of events, it has since become, in the words of journalist Peter Guest, “a meeting point for anti-lockdown activists, anti-vaxxers, QAnon adepts, antisemites, climate deniers, and the far right”, who think it belongs to “a much bigger universe of conspiracies based around the idea of a ‘Great Reset’ that will see people locked in their homes by climate-obsessed autocracies”. It’s not the first controversial thing Fletcher has said, either.

Last week, Miriam Cates made an appearance at PMQs, telling Rishi Sunak: “Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely and 72 genders – this is what passes for relationships and sex education in British schools.”

There is no evidence that this is happening. It is possible that Cates was referring to one case in one school on the Isle of Man – which is not part of the UK. Most recently, the “72 genders” trope was mentioned at CPAC, a hardcore Republican conference in the US where a speaker said that “for the good of society [...] transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely”.

Over the weekend, Bridgen struck again, this time tweeting: “I can confirm that during my visit to Washington DC last Christmas/ New Year I was informed that the US DoD [Department of Defence] were responsible for both the virus and the vaccines.”

What conclusion can we reach here that will not sound hysterically alarmist? These are members of parliament – the people who make our laws – not merely believing things that are demonstrably not true but spreading them; telling the public about them from the Palace of Westminster and elsewhere. We pay their salaries and in return, they regurgitate talking points from the far right.

Bridgen lost the whip some months ago, but Fletcher and Cates are in the governing party. How can we believe anything they say and do when they have shown that they can get taken in by things that obviously aren’t true? What does it say about their judgement?

Would it be better for them to be incapable of conducting basic fact-checking or for them to have decided to repeat demonstrable falsehoods because it suits their agenda? Would you prefer dim politicians or malicious ones?

Because real life is sometimes achingly on the nose, these very MPs have also spent the past few months debating and voting on the Online Safety Bill. Do we really trust them with it if the internet has so obviously warped their own brains?

It is striking that so much time has been devoted to talking about how parliament ought to legislate the worst aspects of the internet, yet so little has been said on the effect those aspects have had on our legislators.

After all, there are 650 of them, many of whom are partisan to the point of being obtuse. They spend a lot of time alone, both in London and commuting to and from their constituencies, and they have jobs that can make them feel alienated from those around them. Of course, some of them were likely to fall down the rabbit hole eventually.

As this unnerving hat-trick has shown, some of them already have. More needs to be done to ensure that they don’t bring others down with them.