[ad_1]
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer will challenge the government to ensure that the UK is the first country to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus.
In a television address that will air Tuesday night, Sir Keir will call for a “massive, immediate, 24-hour effort” to vaccinate the public.
Speaking on the first day of England’s third national lockdown, the Labor leader will demand a “new contract between the government and the British people.”
“The country stays at home; the government delivers the vaccine”, he will say, while proposing the terms of an agreement between politicians and citizens of the United Kingdom.
Sir Keir will add: “We were the first country in the world to receive the vaccine. Let us be the first in the world to vaccinate our country.”
Sir Keir’s speech, a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own television speech to announce the latest lockdown, will come as it was revealed that 1.3 million people across the UK have so far received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
At a Downing Street news conference earlier Tuesday, Johnson said this included more than 650,000 people over the age of 80.
The government has pledged to vaccinate 13.9 million of the most vulnerable people by the middle of next month.
