Yasmin Qureshi MP tells Hancock 'not to insult the people of Bolton' over Indian variant

A Bolton MP has asked the health secretary not to blame the people of Bolton over the spread of Indian Covid variant in the region.

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, objected after Matt Hancock said that majority of people admitted to hospital in the town had been eligible for the vaccination and chose not to have it, reported The Times.

The Labour MP said that Hancock should be focusing on earlier problems relating to the rollout of the vaccine in some parts of Bolton, as well as why infection rates had increased, the report added.

“I want to know, when he said they didn’t take it, were they deliberately refusing it? Because I don’t think that was the case. I would say to (the health secretary), I think it’s unhelpful for people like him to say the comments he has made. People in my constituency are very offended by it," Qureshi told The Times.

She also criticised the location of the initial vaccination site, access issues and the difficulties people faced in getting there. The MP also pointed out that some people had to take two or three buses with journeys that took up to two hours.

“It was a really bad location and they never had more than five or six vaccinators at any one point,” she added.

According to the report, Qureshi raised concerns about conspiracy theorists failing to take the virus seriously last year. There were also instances of misinformation about the virus being shared on local social media pages.

But she does not believe this has been a factor driving the high infection rates or affecting take-up of the vaccine in the area.

Concerns have also been raised that the narrative around vaccine hesitancy could widen divisions among residents in Bolton, The Times report added.

Discussing why infection rates were so high in Bolton, Qureshi pointed to demographic factors including small houses, inter-generational households, high numbers of people in forward-facing jobs who could not work from home, and reliance on public transport.

According to her, some people might be reluctant to get tested for Covid because they were worried about not being able to work, particularly those on zero-hour contracts.

Bolton has the highest infection rate in the country, with 301.5 cases per 100,000 people. Blackburn and Darwen, in Lancashire, have the second highest rate of 131.6 per 100,000 people while Bedford is third, with a rate of 128.1, data shows.