Blackpool's Tory MPs Scott Benton and Paul Maynard take opposing stances on North West vaccine cuts

The NHS confirmed the number of vaccines being sent to the North West would be cut by a third to 200,000 this month.

And Jane Scattergood, Covid-19 vaccination director for NHS Lancashire, said on the radio: "We will complete the top four JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) priorities by mid-February, even on the reduced vaccine supply.

"We're looking to national NHS leaders and central Government to continue to work hard to increase the supply."

Despite this, Blackpool South's Conservative MP Scott Benton denied the region's vaccine supply cuts would affect the resort, but only addressed the current vaccine roll-out for the top priority groups.

Mr Benton said: "Just to be clear, Blackpool and the North West is being provided with the vaccinations needed to give a jab to all of those in the top four priority groups by mid-February: this includes people aged 70 and above, everyone on the clinically extremely vulnerable list, and health care workers.

"Please do not think that Blackpool is losing out or that we are having our ‘vaccines stolen’: this is absolutely not the case."

However, Mr Benton added that he would support the North West losing out on vaccines if it meant other areas with a slower roll-out could "catch up."

"I am pleased that in Blackpool we are on track to meet the Government’s ambitious target to vaccinate the top priority groups by mid-February, but the Government have a responsibility and commitment to protect the most vulnerable across the nation," Mr Benton continued.

"To flip it around, if other regions had vaccinated significantly more people in priority groups, we would rightly expect preference for the vaccines in the North West.

"That is why I would support prioritising vaccines to any region in the UK that need to catch up and protect their most vulnerable."

It came after Angie Ridgwell, chief executive of Lancashire County Council and chairman of Lancashire Resilience Forum, urged Lancashire MPs to call on the Department for Health and Social Care to keep the vaccines set for diversion in the North West.

She asked MPs to contact the Government in a bid to "commit to providing Lancashire with its fair proportionate share of the vaccine that is not based on under-performance in other parts of the country," and "pledge that the 'levelling up' of under-performing areas such as London and the South East will not be at the expense of areas like Lancashire and the North West, which have been amongst the worst impacted by the virus."

Scott Benton's counterpart in Blackpool North and Cleveleys, Paul Maynard, meanwhile shared the Resilience Forum's concerns, and said he would be challenging the Government on its decision.

Mr Maynard said: "I have been in regular contact with the vaccines minister to discuss adequate provision for Lancashire and have raised with him these latest concerns.

"I will continue to make clear now is not the time to slow down and reducing vaccine supply to Lancashire is not the answer."

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Chorley MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, also argued against the Government's decision to cut North West vaccine supplies by a third this month.

Sir Lindsay said he had contacted health secretary Matt Hancock and vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi in a bid to stop the region's vaccine reductions.

He said: "I have raised this with both the Sec [sic] of State for Health & the Minister for Vaccine Deployment and argued against any reduction, as the NW’s health inequalities & high levels of poverty have seen us hit hard by COVID, and resulted in us being locked down much longer than others."