THE recent concerns about possible side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine shouldn’t detract from the excellent work done by those who developed the vaccine and the great people who are involved in rolling out the programme.

But, as usual, our hapless Prime Minister is trying to use the success of the programme for political point scoring. His crass comments at a private meeting of Tory MPs that the success was down to greed and capitalism tell you all you need to know about a man who is unfit to lead our nation.

The reality is that greed and capitalism have gone hand in hand over the generations and the consequences for ordinary men and women have been disastrous.

In the 1930s, a miner was killed every six hours in this country because of the failure to invest in infrastructure and safety. In the 1980s we saw Hillsborough when safety standards were constantly ignored, and just a few short years ago, we saw the agony of Grenfell Tower. All down to corporate greed.

Boris Johnson has tried to put the comments off as a joke in the same way as he has behaved on so many occasions in the past. But if we want a comedian for PM, let’s vote for Peter Kay.

Johnson’s other tactics over his long career include the relaxed relationship that he has with the truth. These columns aren’t long enough to list the lies he has told in his obsession to reach the highest seat in the land.

We deserve so much better. The lack of trust in this Prime Minister's mishandling of the pandemic so far seems to have started to fade as the success of the vaccination programme goes on.

But the last thing we need is to have the programme undermined because of inane comments by a man who just can’t help himself from acting the buffoon.

Dave Anderson, Middleton-in-Teesdale.