The boxer Amir Khan has bizarrely questioned the unanimous expertise of the world’s leading epidemiologists by suggesting the coronavirus did not derive from China but is a “man-made” disease designed to kill the elderly and lower population levels.

Talking on Instagram, the 33-year-old attempted to explain how he thought the prevailing science was “bullshit”, and claimed that the pandemic was “put there for a reason – while they test 5G”.

The unfounded conspiracy theory that the coronavirus is in fact a cover while the UK government installs 5G masts has gathered momentum in recent days, so much so that it was put to cabinet secretary Michael Gove this week, who dismissed it as “dangerous nonsense”.

But Khan is not so sure.

“I don’t think it’s coming from China,” he said. “That’s a lie, really. People are saying that they were eating bats and snakes and the poison mixed. What bullshit is that? Do you believe that? I don’t.

“Coronavirus this, coronavirus that – you’re probably getting bored of it, as I am. Do you not think it’s anything to do with that 5G in these towers that are going up?

“It’s a man-made thing. It’s been put there for a reason – while they test 5G. It might be for population control – get rid of a lot of us, especially when they say that it harms old people. Look at these towers at night-time that have been put up, then telling people not to go out.”