Shipley residents being told to travel to Bradford for booster jabs, MP tells the Commons

Conservative Philip Davies told the House of Commons that many of his constituents are “unable or unwilling” to make the trip to the West Yorkshire city, leading Cabinet Minister Sajid Javid to tell colleagues that he will raise the issue with the NHS to see of anything can be done.

Speaking during Health Questions this morning, Mr Davies said: “Many of my constituents want to have the booster vaccine but are unable to access it locally and instead are being told to go to Bradford to get their booster which many are either unable or unwilling to do so.

“So if the Government wants to have a bigger take up of the booster vaccine can I urge the Health Secretary to make sure there are more places available in the Shipley constituency where my constituents can have their booster?”

Health Secretary Mr Javid said Mr Davies had raised "a very important point" and thanked his constituents for their "excellent response" to the vaccine roll out.

He added: "But I’ve heard what he’s said very clearly and we do want to make access to vaccination as easy and as convenient as possible and we will certainly look and I will speak to the NHS to see what more can be done."

The exchange comes as it was revealed that two million booster jabs have now been handed out across the North East and Yorkshire, with more than 116,000 over the last weekend alone.

Dr Yvette Oade, NHS Clinical Lead for the Covid-19 vaccination programme for North East and Yorkshire, said the news was “really encouraging” as winter approaches. .

She added: “Reaching the 2 million milestone in our region just over nine weeks since the launch of the vaccine booster programme is also testament to the commitment and hard work of everyone involved in delivering the vaccination programme, and I thank them for their efforts. We can see infection rates coming down again quickly in the age groups that have had their boosters.”