Tory grandee Sir Christopher Chope has been slapped down by the nation’s numbers watchdog for saying Covid jabs caused death or serious injury to 10,000 people.
UK Statistics Authority chair Sian Jones told the veteran MP: “There is no basis in official statistics to support the claim.
“Available evidence suggests severe side effects are very rare - much rarer than serious complications from Covid itself.”
Sir Christopher, 75, who first became an MP nearly 40 years ago, made the claim in a Commons debate.
Shadow Health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “That is baseless and dangerous.
“The vaccination programme has saved countless lives and enabled us to reclaim many liberties we were forced to forfeit during the pandemic.”
Ms Jones has now demanded to see evidence that supports the MP’s anti-vax claim.
And last week the Office for National Statistics also debunked claims Covid is no worse than a touch of flu.
New figures show that at the height of the pandemic it was 32 times more likely to kill than pneumonia and flu combined.
And averaged out over the last two years Covid caused four times more deaths than both.
That risk of death rose sevenfold among those aged between 40 - 79 when the disease hit its peak in January last year.
Statisticians studied death certificates issued between March 2020 and April this year which showed 148,606 cases where Covid was listed as the underlying cause of death.
That compared to only 35,007 for flu and pneumonia. Their report says: “This data can put Covid-19 mortality into context.”
And Professor Christina Pagel of Independent SAGE added: “The fact that there is just way more covid around for the foreseeable future will mean deaths remain higher.”
The highest number of deaths in Britain from flu came in the great pandemic of 1918 which claimed 170,000 lives.
Other figures show lower levels of air pollution and fewer viral infections during restrictions reduced hospitalisation for asthma from 84,000 in 2020 to 39,000 last year.
Sir Christopher did not comment.
