Blackpool Conservative MP defies party's decision to cut vaccine supplies in North West

Paul Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys, publicly supported Lancashire Resilience Forum's plea to the Government to keep the full allocation of vaccine supplies in Lancashire.

Covid vaccine supplies are due to be cut from 310,000 to 200,000 in the North West in February, to allow other regions further behind with their vaccine roll-outs to catch up.

Lancashire Resilience Forum blasted the Government's decision yesterday, fearing the county would "become a victim of its own success" if vaccine supplies were cut by a third.

Mr Maynard said he had raised the Forum's concerns with vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, maintaining that reducing supplies was "not the answer."

He said: "I have been in regular contact with the vaccines minister to discuss adequate provision for Lancashire and have raised with him these latest concerns.

"I will continue to make clear now is not the time to slow down and reducing vaccine supply to Lancashire is not the answer."

It came after Angie Ridgwell, chief executive of Lancashire County Council and chairman of Lancashire Resilience Forum, asked county leaders and MPs to show their support for preventing a vaccines cut.

In a letter to Lancashire leaders and MPs yesterday, Ms Ridgwell urged them to speak out against the decision to reduce supplies, and slammed the lack of transparency from health chiefs and Government.

She wrote: "The NHS centrally and Government have refused to provide us with full data of what vaccine is going where, and we had to rely on the media to find out about the proposed cut.

"We need transparency and proper engagement because we do know that in recent days we have experienced a significant reduction in supply which has not been experienced in under-performing parts of the country.

"We are also still not receiving data of who has had the vaccine in Lancashire which hampers the programme and hiders our colleagues from performing even better."