British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has attacked anti-vaccine campaigners who spread “mumbo jumbo” and “nonsense” on social media.

“I want to say to the anti-vax campaigners, the people who are putting this mumbo jumbo on social media: they are completely wrong,” Mr Johnson said while speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a vaccination centre in Northampton.

He said a “voluntary approach” to vaccination will remain, amid other countries’ “coercion.”

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“You haven’t heard me say that before because I think it’s important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we’re going to keep a voluntary approach.”

Mr Johnson said other European countries were going for “coercion,” and added: “What a tragedy that we’ve got all this pressure on the National Health Service, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing, and we’ve got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination.

“They are totally wrong, and I think it’s time that I, the government, call them out on what they’re doing,” he reiterated.

Britain’s vaccine rollout had successfully reached tens of millions of people, with a ramping up of the booster programme in recent weeks as Omicron cases surged.

However, an estimated 4.5 million people aged 18 and over in the UK have not had the first dose, more than six million people are not double jabbed, and almost nine million eligible people have not had a booster.

(dpa/NAN)