A controversial doctor given top billing at the Reform party conference has used his main-stage speech to air a claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family.
The speech by Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist who was appointed as a senior adviser to the US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy, drew sharp intakes of breath in the Birmingham auditorium where he was handed a prime speaking slot.
After setting out what he said were findings showing that vaccines “created havoc” in the human body, Malhotra said he had been asked to share something by a doctor who he described as one of Britain’s most eminent oncologists.
“He thinks it’s highly likely that the Covid vaccines have been a factor, a significant factor in the cancer of members of the royal family,” said Malhotra, who had previously said: “This isn’t just his opinion many other doctors feel the same way.”
The remarks drew immediate condemnation from the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and others.
“When we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated, it is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies,” said Streeting.
“Farage should apologise and sever all ties with this dangerous extremism.”
A spokesperson for Cancer Research UK said: “There is no good evidence of a link between the Covid-19 vaccine and cancer risk. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect against the infection and prevent serious symptoms.”
There had been speculation at the conference from early morning that Malhotra would make the comment in his speech.
A known vaccine sceptic, Malhotra had been listed in the conference programme as speaking on the topic “Make Britain Healthy Again”, a slogan borrowed from the Trump administration. Doctors had urged Farage in advance of the speech not to give him a platform.
Malhotra had garbled the name of the oncologist who he cited in his speech. However, in the past he has used X to link to an interview with TalkTV in which Angus Dalgleish, an oncologist, linked Covid jabs to cancer.
There was no immediate comment from Buckingham Palace, which first announced the king’s cancer diagnosis in February 2024. The Princess of Wales, Catherine, announced her cancer diagnosis in March 2024.
King Charles was revealed to be undergoing treatment for cancer in February 2024. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Malhotra has long been a vocal figure for hesitancy about Covid vaccines, claiming they pose a greater threat than the virus itself – a view repeatedly debunked by factcheckers.
In his speech on Saturday, he referred to findings that were aired on a show presented by Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump. At the end of his speech, he went on to claim that the general public were being misled and that Covid vaccines had been responsible for killing and injuries.
Malhotra had appeared on Friday at the Reform UK conference at a fringe panel to discuss free speech, where calls were made for Britain to withdraw from the World Health Organization.
The speech was one of a number of incidents that threatened to generate negative headlines over the course of a two-day conference where Reform, leading Labour and Tories in the polls, tried hard to project an image of professionalism.
Signs that the party was managing to court acceptance in corporate sectors included the presence of a Heathrow International Business Lounge, along with a small number of diplomatic delegations.
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But there were also signs that Reform leadership remains concerned about the potential for divisions to once again cause ruptures. Previous schisms have emerged over its approach to Tommy Robinson’s supporters, while the party’s erstwhile MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe and its former deputy leader Ben Habib are among those who are now fervent critics of Farage outside the party.
Farage used his closing speech on Saturday to appeal to Reform members to settle disputes in private. He asked: “Can we please exercise discipline and air our disagreements between each other in private?”
However, Malhotra’s speech was not the only one to mark a descent into culture-war controversy that critics have long warned make Reform an unserious proposition for government.
Earlier Sarah Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, who has previously called for the burqa to be banned in Britain, told the conference she wanted to arrive on stage in a turquoise version of the Islamic headdress. She said the party’s deputy leader Richard Tice had said no to this.
The MP was at the centre of a row in Reform UK this year when she called on the prime minister to ban the burqa and was later accused by then Reform chair Zia Yusuf of asking a “dumb” question as it was not party policy.
Pochin also told members she would “not be silenced” by a new Islamophobia definition introduced by the government saying she would “see you in jail” if a new law on the issue was passed.
The comments came in reference to a working group, led by the former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve, which was set up earlier this year by Angela Rayner to provide recommendations on how to tackle anti-Muslim hatred in Britain, including whether to create a new definition of Islamophobia.
The conference also ended with an appearance on stage by Lucy Connolly, the former childminder who was jailed after last year’s riots for a social media post calling asylum seeker hotels to be torched.
Connolly said she would “love” to work with the party in the future, receiving cheers from the audience as she revealed she voted for them at the last election.
There were no further high-profile defections from the Conservative party. The former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told a fringe gathering at the conference that his teenage daughter, Mary, had joined Reform UK and that he was “having my arm twisted” by her to follow suit.