Khalid’s long shot pays off

WITH the Army ready to play a key role in the vaccine roll-out, who can blame Khalid Mahmood, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Defence Procurement, for showing personal initiative?

The Birmingham MP spotted a loophole that allowed him to jump the queue at his local hospital and procure a Covid jab for, er, himself.

Mahmood, who had a kidney transplant in 2014, would likely have been called for a vaccination in the spring. However, the 59-year-old announced that he’d skirted the priority list by ‘joining the queue for leftover doses’ at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. ‘It’s not very well known, but at the end of the day, any vaccine unused because people have not turned up for their appointments is made available,’ Mahmood tweeted. ‘We can’t afford to waste any... doses. I joined a queue at about 3pm and got a vaccine.’

Not surprisingly, the hospital has since pleaded for the public not to queue up without appointments and pointed out that any jabs left over should go to NHS staff. Mahmood defended his queue-jumping, saying: ‘I did not tell anyone I was an MP or ask for special treatment.’

So that’s all right then.