Tory MP's Husband Dubs COVID-19 'Outbreak of Mental Illness': Report

Late last week, Sandy McFadzean attended a rally against lockdown restrictions in central London's Trafalgar Square, where thousands of protesters specifically called for an end to social distancing, as well as the use of face masks.

Sandy McFadzean, husband of Tory minister Chloe Smith, tweeted in July that COVID-19 is "most likely an outbreak of mental illness", the Eastern Daily Press reported on Thursday.

"[The UK] government need to be clear. Either there is a killer virus on the loose or there isn't. (Spoiler alert: There isn't)", McFadzean's further Twitter post pointed out, according to the British newspaper.

The Eastern Daily Press also claimed that McFadzean, who married Smith in 2013, previously retweeted posts that called the British government "globalist puppets" and "tyrants".

The newspaper added that McFadzean’s Twitter account had been deleted after they tried to contact Smith for comment earlier this week.

Smith, a Conservative MP for Norwich North, for her part rejected her husband's coronavirus-mental-illness claim but underscored the right of every UK citizen to express his or her own opinion.

Such a shame @edp & @TomSBristow didn’t include the response I gave them in good faith yesterday: My husband is a private citizen.Everyone is entitled to their views & to debate.I take a different view to his. My views are on the record & I’ll carry on working for my constituents

— Chloe Smith #stayalertsavelives (@NorwichChloe) September 3, 2020

"My husband is a private citizen, everyone is entitled to their views and to debate, I take a different view to him, my views are on the record and I’ll carry on working for my constituents", she tweeted on Thursday. The Conservative Party has not commented on the matter yet.

The remarks come after McFadzean, vice president of investment bank Credit Suisse, attended a march against national lockdown restrictions in central London late last week, when thousands of protesters demanded an end to social distancing, and the use of face masks, among other things.

In a separate development, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that more outbreaks of the coronavirus can be expected in the country in the coming months as many people begin returning to their offices after months of working remotely.

Since the start of the outbreak, the UK Department of Health and Social Care has registered more than 335,800 cases of the coronavirus, with the COVID-19 death toll in Britain currently standing at 41,527, according to the department's latest estimates.