The ‘anti-lockdown’ candidate
SHE CLAIMS PANDEMIC DEATHS ARE COMPARABLE TO FLU, AND VACCINE PASSPORTS REMIND HER OF NAZI GERMANY
A CANDIDATE for a political party which rejects any Covid restrictions is fighting for a seat on Calderdale Council.
Helen Lasham is standing for the Freedom Alliance in the Calder Ward for the upcoming local elections on May 6.
The 55-year-old mum-of-three is opposed to lockdowns, mandatory mask-wearing and vaccine passports.
Ms Lasham is standing against Labour’s Josh Fenton-Glynn – who was elected in 2019 with just under half of all the votes – as well as the Conservative’s Gail Lund, Green Party’s Alan McDonald and Nikki Stocks of the Liberal Democrats.
She says is standing for council to challenge the established narrative around the Covid response, saying that people should be given the freedom of choice over their health and how they react to the virus.
She said: “I think that given the opportunity, people are caring individuals and if they feel unwell they will stay away from people in order to protect other people.”
She is opposed to the idea of vaccine passports, and said: “I think they’re ridiculous. I think they remind me of Nazi Germany.”
“I think they create huge and horrible mental distress.”
She is similarly against maskwearing, and said: “For us to go out onto the streets to use public transport, to want to get into a taxi, and to be told you have to wear a mask, was mental torture.
“It was like ‘good God, we are living in a dystopian nightmare.’”
If elected to council Helen said she would want to stop mandating masks and would fight what she calls ‘misinformation’ – although the law about wearing facemasks is not something a local council has the power to change.
Ms Lasham stressed that she does not deny that the coronavirus exists, and believes she caught the virus last year, but swiftly recovered.
However, she believes coronavirus was being manipulated and that there is a ‘nasty agenda further down the line.’
She said: “Right at the top there’s a very clear plan, it’s passed down with a whole heap of threat and people jump and they do it without question.
“And anyone that does question is called a conspiracy theorist, is called a trouble-maker.”
She downplayed the threat posed by the virus, saying that the figures show that the outbreak is comparable to a bad flu season.
Data from the Government shows that by April 2, Covid caused the deaths of 150,419 people in the UK.
Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, published a research paper in June 2020 which said “non-pharmaceutical interventions” especially lockdowns, have a large effect on reducing transmissions of Covid19.
Ms Lasham has protested against restrictions since the Covid crisis began last year and received death threats for doing so.
This is her first foray into politics, having previously been a nurse with the NHS, an alternative therapy practitioner and an ordained reverend.