Government is accused of failing to take threat seriously after vaccination targets missed and publicity spending cut

More than half a million adults over 65 and almost 350,000 toddlers could miss out on their flu vaccinations after a failure to meet government targets, Labour has said.

The warning comes amid fears that Britain could be hit by its biggest flu outbreak in years this winter following major outbreaks in Australia and New Zealand.

Public Health England aims for a minimum 75% vaccination rate among over-65s and the government target for children aged between two and eight is 40% to 65%. Labour is predicting that the actual uptakes will be more like 70% for the former and the minimum acceptable level of 40% for two to three-year-olds and says hundreds of thousands of people will be “needlessly” unprotected.

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, says the Tory government has failed to take the threat seriously, pointing to a drop in spending on flu publicity campaigns, compared with when Labour was in power.

He will tell Labour’s BAME conference in Birmingham on Saturday: “A flu outbreak could make winter pressures more severe, extensive and destabilising for our NHS than ever before.

“Yet Theresa May’s response to a potential flu crisis has been staggeringly complacent, even in the wake of serious warnings from senior NHS leaders such as Simon Stevens. The research we are revealing today shows the government have consistently failed to meet their targets on flu vaccinations.”

Flu vaccination rates among over-65s have fallen each year since 2011/12, when it was 74%. Last year the figure was 70.5%. Predicting a further drop to 70% this winter, Labour says that would mean 500,000 people aged 65 and over left unprotected, who would have been vaccinated if the 75% target was met.

The uptake among two-year-olds and three-year-olds has fluctuated since 2013/14 when it was 42.6% and 39.5% respectively. Based on the average over the last four years, Labour is forecasting 38.9% among two-year-olds and 40% among three-year-olds, which would mean 175,000 two-year-olds and 170,000 three-year-olds not getting vaccinated who would have been if the top of the target range (65%) was hit.

The latest uptake figures, published on Thursday, showed that it is up on the same period last year for over-65s, from 50.7% to 53.7%. But for two-year-olds it is down from last year, from 14.1% to 13.3% and it has also fallen among three-year-olds, from 15% to 13.7%.



Answers to written parliamentary answers show that spending on flu publicity campaigns has almost halved under the first six years of the Conservative government, including the period of coalition, compared with Labour’s last six years in power. Labour spent £7.1m between 2004/05 and 2009/10, although expenditure dropped significantly, to £258,000, in the final winter of the period.

From 2010/11 to 2015/16, the government spent £3.6m, including just £2,000 in the coalition government’s first winter. The government spent £63,425 the following winter and less than £500,000 in the two winters after that. In 2014/15 expenditure jumped to £1.6m and last year it was £1m.

Ashworth will pledge that Labour will “reverse this record of failure”. He will say: “We will properly fund awareness campaigns and put in place a strategy to return our vaccination rates to government and WHO standards.”



Australia has already had more than 70,000 cases of flu this winter, and the figure may still surpass the 100,000 recorded in 2015, its worst year ever.

The Department of Health said: “This year 21 million people – more than ever before - are eligible for a free flu jab and we’ve announced an unprecedented system-wide push for all NHS workers to have the jab.”