Boris Johnson says he wants "everybody to get a flu jab" in the run-up to this winter - as part of the government's plan to prevent the National Health Service being overwhelmed by a combination of both seasonal flu and coronavirus.

The UK prime minister described the proposal for more than half the population of England, around 30 million, to be offered a free flu jab this winter as the “biggest ever programme of flu immunisation”.

He said: “The reason for doing this is to protect the NHS in the winter months because obviously we have still got Covid. We have still got the threat of a second spike.

"It's vital therefore to keep that pressure off the NHS by everybody getting a flu jab and I really hope everybody will."
Johnson was also asked about whether he thinks it is a good idea for the public to be "shaming" people who are not wearing masks after they were made mandatory in shops in England.

He replied: "I think we should rely on the massive common sense of the British people that have so far delivered the results that we've seen, and that's going to work."