Covid-19 Update Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Covid-19 Update

Mick Whitley Excerpts
Wednesday 19th January 2022

(2 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I agree with that. I think that across Whitehall we need to show a lead and make sure that we get back to work—that everybody gets back to work. It is safe to do so, provided everybody exercises the due caution that I have set out today. I entirely agree with my hon. Friend.

Mick Whitley Portrait Mick Whitley (Birkenhead) (Lab)
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We are, mercifully, in a much better position today than we were this time a year ago, and that is thanks to the heroic efforts of the NHS in the roll-out of vaccinations, but just 9% of people living in Africa have been vaccinated against covid-19 to date. Does the Prime Minister agree that the UK is failing to honour its humanitarian obligations to the poorest countries in the world, and will he commit this Government to support a waiver of intellectual property rights on covid-19 vaccines?