A UK Conservative MP might be the first politician in the world to seek forgiveness for voting to fire unvaccinated workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

UK MP Danny Kruger stood before Westminster Hall on Oct. 24 and said he was “ashamed” he voted for the firings. 

“I am afraid that we still have many questions to ask ourselves, and even much to be ashamed of,” he said.

“I put on record that in hindsight I am particularly ashamed of my vote to dismiss care workers who did not want to receive the vaccine.”

“I very much hope that the 40,000 care workers who lost their jobs can be reinstated, and indeed compensated. A group of us—including, I think, the Minister—held out against compulsory vaccination of health workers when that was proposed by the government last winter. I think that resistance turned the tide, to a degree, on government policy, and we emerged from the lockdowns more quickly than we might otherwise have done.”

Kruger also accused the Canadian government of being in league with China and New Zealand when it came to “depriving their population of the most basic civil liberties” in the name of public health. 

“Although many questions about our COVID response need to be answered, the UK is by no means the worst offender. We are not Canada, New Zealand or China — places where Governments think they can exterminate COVID by depriving their population of the most basic civil liberties,” said Kruger. 

She was not responsible for enforcing oppressive COVID-19 mandates, but Alberta’s new premier Danielle Smith apologized last week to unvaccinated Albertans — the first apology of its kind from a political leader. 

Smith has left the door open to giving back pay to the province’s unvaccinated workers who lost their jobs while the vaccine mandate was in effect. She also wants to ban all vaccine mandates for post-secondary schools.

“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job, or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey, or not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or a hospital, or not allowed to get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border,” Smith said just hours after being sworn in as premier last month.