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A shadow Labor minister battled the elements during a live television interview, when gusts of wind nearly knocked over a lighting rig.
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth spoke to Sky News outside his home, despite decidedly inclement weather.
Torrential rain and strong gusts of wind blew her umbrella upside down as she answered questions from Sky host Sophie Ridge.
And a lighting rig tipped over, forcing him to catch her before it hit him in the face.
But Ashworth went on and managed to answer questions about the Covid-19 vaccines.
When asked whether people should be forced to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, he answered no.
“About 150 years ago, I think, we introduced mandatory vaccination legislation in this country,” he said.
“And it led to massive demonstrations in this country.”
It was at this point that he apologized when his umbrella exploded and the lights fell on him.
“The team is falling. The umbrella is gone,” he said. “This is going to be one of those. Those clips that go viral for sure.”
But he continued: ‘What I was saying is that in the UK we introduced compulsory vaccination laws in the 1850s, as it happens, I know it was a long time ago.
“But it just led to mass demonstrations. It led to the Anti-Vaccination League and our vaccination rates really dropped.”
Ashworth is calling on the government to crack down on anti-vaccination content on social media websites.
He and Shadow Culture Secretary Jo Stevens said the government’s involvement in social media platforms, targeting anti-vaccination content, didn’t go far enough.
The two shadow cabinet ministers said in their letter to the Secretary of Culture: “While we welcomed the creation of a disinformation unit within the government, it has been disappointing that the ministers have not been able to provide any information about their work or tell how much content you have reported to social media companies for removal.
“The collaboration announced with social media companies last week was welcome, but feels grossly inadequate with a promise from them to remove only government-flagged, profit-making content.
“What we need is action now and since these companies have not been able to act on their own, we are asking the government to introduce emergency legislation that includes financial and criminal penalties for continued non-compliance.
“Labor would give the government the votes it needs to get the House of Commons to pass such a bill.
“One person who does not take the vaccine because of this harmful content is too many.”
A government spokesman said: “Letting vaccine misinformation spread uncontrollably could cost British lives.
“We take this issue very seriously and have gotten a strong commitment from Facebook, Twitter and Google to address it without capitalizing on such material and responding to flagged content more quickly.
“We continue to work closely with social media companies to promote authoritative sources of information so that people have access to vaccine facts, not fiction.”
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