Lancashire County Council’s chief executive will write to the health secretary “seeking clarity” over whether vaccine supplies to the area have been reduced because of the rate at which it has been giving out the jabs.

It was reported last month that the number of weekly doses being made available to the wider North West region would be cut by a third from this week – dropping from around 300,000 to 200,000.

The Health Service Journal said that the decision had been taken to allow other parts of the country that were not as far advanced in offering first doses to the top four priority groups a chance to “catch up”.

Lancashire and South Cumbria have led the way within a North West region that has been one of the speediest when it comes to rolling out the vaccine.

However, the issue of supply appeared to become mired in confusion and politics in the wake of the report suggesting a diversion.

NHS England’s primary care director Nikki Kanani said deliveries were being targeted “to make sure that they are going to areas where there are more people left to vaccinate in the priority cohorts”.

However, health secretary Matt Hancock said in the Commons last week that Lancashire would get its “fair share” in order to meet the mid-February target to give first jab to the most vulnerable groups and dismissed “reports circulating on the internet” about the issue.

Lancashire County Council’s Labour opposition group leader Azhar Ali secured an emergency debate on the subject on Thursday, calling for the authority to contact the Prime Minister demanding any diversion policy be reversed.

“I want everyone in the country to be vaccinated, but I don’t see why the success of the rollout in Lancashire means we should have to forego vaccinations. In parts of Lancashire, we have some of the worst health inequalities across the whole country.

“It’s our duty as elected members to ensure all people who need this vaccination get it.

“If it is a supply problem then the government needs to address it – if there isn’t a supply problem, we need to stand up for people in Lancashire and make sure they get what they deserve,” County Cllr Ali said.

He then accepted a “friendly amendment” from Conservative county councillor Charlie Edwards who instead requested that County Hall chief executive Angie Ridgwell write to Mr Hancock to seek “clarity” over the situation – and acknowledged that it was “absolutely vital that the excellent progress made in the vaccination programme in Lancashire is allowed to continue unabated”.

Stating that he hoped the original motion was not a “a poor man’s attempt to have a bash at this government in its response to Covid in a [local] election year”, he added.

“Anybody watching this, doesn’t care what I or any other politician says.

“All you care about is if you have had, or are waiting to receive, your vaccine. You want the schools open and the country back on its feet.

“The light is at the end of the tunnel. Let’s tell our government we support a fair and strong vaccination programme,” County Cllr Edwards said.

Ms. Ridgwell had already issued a statement condemning any attempt to divert vaccines from the county when the reports suggesting such a move initially emerged.

Figures published on Thursday show that Lancashire and South Cumbria have given a first dose to 91 per cent of their over-70s.  

That group, along with frontline NHS staff, the extremely clinically vulnerable and care home residents and staff make up the cohorts that the government intends to have received an initial jab by today.

NHS bosses in the region said last week that they were “on track” to achieve that aim.

However, the emergency debate also heard from independent county councillor Paul Greenall who questioned whether the age-related risk posed by coronavirus should have been better reflected in the government’s action to combat it.

“It has been clear to me for some time that we have needed a mature, targeted response to Covid-19.

“Instead, I think our government have responded with inconsistency bordering on incompetence and sometimes enforcement bordering on authoritarianism – both of which have not only failed to stop the number of deaths from rising, but the collateral damage may not be known for years, “ County Cllr Greenall added.