'Don't get your hopes up': Johnson urges caution over vaccine at PMQs as Starmer questions how care homes will get it

Boris Johnson has urged the public to not get their hopes up about the speed at which the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will be deployed to the UK's most vulnerable.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked how quickly care home residents will get vaccinated, given the UK's first order of the vaccine will only be enough to immunise 400,000 people, and there are issues around deployment due to the drug needing to be stored at -70 degrees.

Mr Johnson said: "I think at this stage it is very, very important that people do not get their hopes up too soon about the speed with which we will be able to roll out this vaccine.

"It is beginning, as my right honourable friend the Health Secretary has said, from next week. We are expecting several million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine before the end of the year.

"We will then be rolling it out as fast as we possibly can."

Speaking at PMQs, Mr Johnson acknowledged the issues around storing the vaccine, saying "logistical challenges to be overcome to get vulnerable people the access to the vaccine that they need".

But he said all four UK nations are working together, with the NHS to ensure the vaccine is distributed to "as fast and as sensibly as possible to the most vulnerable groups".

There were some feisty exchanges between the two leaders in the Commons, with Mr Johnson attacking the Labour leader for ordering his MPs to abstain from Tuesday's vote on returning England to tiered coronavirus restrictions.

"When it came to protecting the people of this country from coronavirus at this critical moment, he told his troops to abstain.

"Captain Hindsight is rising rapidly up the ranks and has become General Indecision."

Sir Keir hit back, reminding Mr Johnson of the time he abstained from a vote on the expansion of Heathrow Airport, despite fiercely campaigning against it when he was London Mayor.

He said: "When I abstain I come to the House and explain, when the Prime Minister abstains he runs away to Afghanistan and gives the taxpayer a £20,000 bill."

Sir Keir also asked Mr Johnson what he would do to support the jobs and pensions of the 25,000 people affected by the collapse of Arcadia, the firm which owns Topshop and Dorothy Perkins.

Mr Johnson replied: "We're looking at what we can do to protect all the jobs that have been lost across the country and (Alok Sharma) has written to the Insolvency Service to look at the conduct of the Arcadia directors.

"We will be doing everything we can to restore the high streets of this country with our one billion high streets fund and the levelling up fund."

He added that the government is "doing everything we can to restore the high streets of this country".