Boris Johnson meets West Yorkshire faith leaders in Batley to promote uptake of Covid-19 jab

The Prime Minister has visited a vaccination centre in Batley in West Yorkshire this morning to meet with faith leaders to promote the uptake of the Covid-19 jab.

He commended the work already being done in the community to encourage people to get a vaccine.

He said: "I pay tribute to the community here in Batley and across West Yorkshire where they have been fighting the nonsense of anti vaccine propaganda and a remarkable effort by local leaders here at the centre in Batley.

"I have seen what they have done and what they are producing is fantastic to see and an incredibly high turnout rate."

Whilst at the Al Hikmah centre in Batley, Boris Johnson said there were signs that lockdown measures were working - but that the vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful.

Education is a concern for the Prime Minister, as he explained it would be a major priority in the coming weeks and months:

During his visit, the Prime Minister also said he is "optimistic" people will be able to enjoy a summer holiday this year, provided the disease can be kept under control.

"I don't want to give too much concrete by way of dates for our summer holidays. I am optimistic - I understand the reasons for being optimistic - but some things have got to go right.

"The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful. We have got to make sure we don't get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down."

The Prime Minister said the rollout of the vaccination programme has been "phenomenal" but declined to be drawn on whether the Government would meet its targets.

"I think it would be unwise to speculate at the moment. I think the NHS, the pharmacies, the volunteers, helped by the Army, they have done an outstanding job," he said.

"The rollout has been phenomenal so far but it is still, relatively speaking, early days."