Minister George Freeman slammed over vague answer about when young people can get booster jab: ‘It’s not true’

Science minister George Freeman remained vague when asked when young people can get their booster vaccine – despite the government’s pledge to have all adults vaccinated by the end of January.

Announced by Boris Johnson at a Downing Street press conference on Tuesday (November, 30) it is hoped the rollout of the booster vaccine will help ease the spread of the new omicron variant.

Appearing on Sky News, Freeman was questioned by Kay Burley as to why the government has not shared when 20 and 30-year-olds will be able to book their booster jab, even though the January time frame has been earmarked.

In response, Freeman said that those people can contact their GP and go via the app to get their booster jab booked in – which seemingly contradicts the advice of health chiefs who say that those under 40s should wait to hear from the NHS.

“Some GP practices are rolling slightly quicker than others and that is what you would expect but if people contact their GP now and go on the app they can book to get their booster jab,” Freeman told Burley.

“That’s not true, that’s not true. Minister, that’s not true,” Burley replied. “You can’t get your booster at the moment if you are in your 20s. The question is we were told earlier in the week that there is a plan.”

She then repeated her question: “I am just asking you where the plan is and when people in their 20s and 30s can book their booster?”

Freeman said: “Well the NHS are leading on that rollout. I haven’t got at my fingertips today exactly which GP practices are making it available today.

“But we are accelerating that rollout and it is key and we are putting that in place so that the next generation, the next age cohort can get their booster jab as quickly as possible.”

Not satisfied with his response, Burley then retaliated: “The answer is you don’t know the answer,” before moving on to another question, but she was then interrupted by Freeman who protested her comment.

“No, that’s not true Kate,” he said before Burley hit back once more: “Minister, if you are in your 20s you don’t know when you can have the jab. Just admit to that because that is fundamentally the case, isn’t it.”

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Freeman replied saying that “the case is that the NHS is rolling out the vaccine rollout” to which Burley can be heard commenting: “You don’t know.”

“If you contact your GP and book it you will get your jab,” he concluded.

Burley again refuted Freeman’s answer by saying: “That is not true, it is just not true. It is just not true, minister.”

People took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Freeman’s response to questions put to him while praising Burley for holding him to account.

However, Freeman then appeared to create further confusion in another interview when the same question was put to him by Susanna Reid and Ben Shephard on Good Morning Britain.

Shephard noted how his co-host Reid has tried to book it for someone that is over 18 and “yet it’s saying they’ve got to wait five months.”

He then asked: “When is the infrastructure going to be in place that you can book...”

“Yeah it’s in place, the NHS is running it, you go online, you register to the app, and the app then tells you when you are eligible,” Freeman responded.

Despite, previously saying “if you contact your GP and book it you will get your jab,” in his Sky News interview, he did not recommend the same advice in this instance.

“That’s the right way to do it, we don’t want everybody ringing up the GP practice,” Freeman added, citing how they’re dealing with this public health crisis along with a backlog of people who need treatments for other things like cancer.

As of December 1, 18,608,124 people have received their booster vaccine.

indy100 has contacted George Freeman for comment.