Keir Starmer urges Government to establish ‘round-the-clock’ Covid vaccination programme

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Government to use the third national lockdown in England. 
PA
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Government to use the third national lockdown in England to create a “round-the-clock” vaccination scheme in order to end “this nightmare”.

In a televised response to Boris Johnson’s statement, Labour leader Sir Keir reiterated that his party supports the new measures being imposed and would back them in a Commons vote.

The comments came as it emerged that an estimated one in 50 people in private households in England had Covid-19 between December 27 and January 2, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Sir Keir said Labour will continue to scrutinise the Prime Minister where MPs believe he is failing in his response to Covid-19.

He added: “The British people have sacrificed so much but, thanks to the dedication and brilliance of our scientists, there is hope of a way out of this nightmare,” Sir Keir said, calling on the nation to “recapture the spirit” of the beginning of the pandemic.

“That means using this lockdown to establish a massive, immediate, and round-the-clock vaccination programme to deliver millions of doses a week by the end of the month in every village and town, every high street and every GP surgery,” he continued.

“We need our businesses and public services working hand-in-hand for the common good. We need an army of volunteers and to use every resource at our disposal.

“This is now a race between the virus and the vaccine. And if we pull together as a nation, we can win.”

Speaking at the Downing Street press conference on Tuesday,  Mr Johnson vowed to use “every second” under the stringent restrictions to put an “invisible shield” around the elderly and vulnerable through a mass vaccination programme.

He said: “I believe that when everybody looks at the position, people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice.

“When the Office of National Statistics (ONS) is telling us that more than 2 per cent of the population is now infected – that’s over one million people in England.

“And when today we have reported another 60,000 new cases, and when the number of patients in hospitals in England is now 40 per cent higher than at the first peak in April.

 Mr Johnson said: “I believe that when everybody looks at the position, people understand overwhelmingly that we have no choice.
Getty Images

“I think obviously everybody – you all – want to be sure that we in Government are now using every second of this lockdown to put that invisible shield around the elderly and the vulnerable in the form of vaccination and so to begin to bring this crisis to an end.”

The conference and figures came as the UK recorded 60,916 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases as of 9am on Tuesday – the highest daily total reported so far since the pandemic began.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in