Girls and boys should be given the HPV jab while at primary school, doctors say.

Currently girls are offered the vaccination from the age of 12 and 13 onwards, with plans to extend the programme to boys in future.

But doctors at the British Medical Association’ (BMA)’s annual conference called for the jabs to be given to children as young as 10 - in case some could become sexually active before puberty.

Delegates at the BMA’s annual meeting in Brighton voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion which called for the vaccination to be offered to “all school age children of both sexes and administered at primary school to be more effective”.

Campaign groups criticised the idea, saying it would encourage children into sexual promiscuity.

And health officials said research had found parents were uncomfortable with children receiving the jabs at primary school.