A NEWSPAPER cartoonist has come under fire for boasting that he has “never” followed a single Covid rule – and insisting his “conscience is clear” about that.

Bob Moran, whose work is published by the Telegraph and has previously appeared in The Guardian and Morning Star among other titles, declared he has not followed such simple guidance as using hand sanitiser throughout the pandemic.

The artist offered his contribution to the debate yesterday as the UK Government confirmed it is abandoning the vast majority of Covid-19 restrictions in England, including mask wearing and social distancing, from July 19.

Moran took to Twitter to insist the harms of mask wearing are “too great to justify wearing them for such a mild respiratory virus”.

Some 128,000 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the UK, and there have been nearly four million deaths around the world – the true figure is estimated to be larger due to differences in how countries calculate their figures.

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The cartoonist then boasted: “I’ve never worn a mask, never used hand sanitiser, never social distanced, never scanned a code, never downloaded the app, never got a test, never given my real details, never chapped the NHS and I am never, ever, getting vaccinated. My conscience is clear.”

He added that he will look at people continuing to wear masks beyond July 19 as he would a person “wearing a T-shirt with ‘I think child abuse is fine’ written on it”.

Moran was heavily criticised for the posts, which prompted more than 1000 responses.

Analyst Jessica Huseman mocked Moran by responding: “’I have never given a f*** about another living human. My conscience is clear.’”

“Never washed his hands after using the toilet,” another user joked.

“Pricks like this used to say 'I've driven over the limit 100s of times. Never had an accident',” pointed out Ian Wilson.

Game developer Rami Ismail told Moran: “Bob, this is somewhat embarrassing but it seems you might not have noticed before posting that your phone had autocorrected ‘I'm a selfish asshole that has chosen to spread the lies I tell myself’ to ‘My conscience is clear’.”

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Moran’s anti-vaccine theories and attacks on the NHS were reported in Left Foot Forward earlier this year. The cartoonist claimed that had the media ignored the pandemic “hardly anyone” would have known about Covid-19’s presence, and accused the NHS of “lying” about the virus crisis.

According to Private Eye, the artist’s online behaviour has prompted Telegraph writers to complain to bosses.