Boris Johnson visits Northampton to call out anti-vaxxers labelling them 'completely wrong' and 'counterproductive'

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Northampton this afternoon (January 6) to discuss anti-vaxxers.

Mr Johnson visited the county vaccination centre at Moulton Park where he said the people putting 'mumbo jumbo' on social media about Covid-19 vaccines are 'completely wrong'.

Mr Johnson told Sky News: "I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, the people who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media: they are completely wrong.

"You haven’t heard me say that before, because I think it’s important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we’re going to keep a voluntary approach."

He added: "What a tragedy that we’ve got all this pressure on the NHS, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing and we’ve got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination.

"They are totally wrong, and I think it’s time that I, the Government, call them out on what they’re doing. It’s absolutely wrong, it’s totally counterproductive, and the stuff they’re putting out on social media is complete mumbo jumbo."

More than one-and-a-half million Covid jabs have been given in Northamptonshire in an effort to protect people from severe symptoms of the virus.

But NHS England today confirmed that nine Covid patients at Northampton General Hospital have sadly died already this year.

■ Click HERE for up-to-date information on regular, mobile and pop-up vaccination clinics in Northamptonshire.

The PM added: "The saddest words in the English language are 'too late'. When you're in ICU and you haven't been vaccinated, sadly it's too late to get vaccinated, so get boosted now."

Latest daily figures revealed 2,267 new positive Covid tests in Northamptonshire — they highest at any time during the pandemic — with more than 13,000 likely to be currently self-isolating.

Mr Johnson also acknowledged that the NHS was under "huge pressure" at the moment, but said it is "not true" that the health service does not have enough doctors and nurses to cope with the pressures it is facing and denied putting the NHS on a war footing without the right staffing.

As many as 24 NHS trusts have declared critical incidents, although neither NGH nor Kettering General Hospital are among them.

The PM said: "it's been continuous over the last 18 months, wave after wave of COVID", while he said he understood how frustrating it was to see another wave.

He defended the government's record on bolstering staff numbers added: "there are 5,000 more doctors this year and 10,000 more nurses", as he insisted the government was recruiting many more.