Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he gets his Covid-19 booster

Boris Johnson gave a huge thumbs up as he received his Covid-19 booster vaccine and urged the British people to follow suit.

Speaking after the shot the Prime Minister, 57, said: “We’re building ever higher the wall of protection.

“Whatever Omicron may or may not be able to do it certainly will not negate the overall value of the boosters - so everybody should get your booster as soon.”

He got his third jab, holding up three fingers to cameras, after it was delivered by nurse Saffron at the same St Thomas’ Hospital where he recovered from the virus.

The Prime Minister said events should not be cancelled due to the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

Speaking to broadcasters, Boris Johnson said: “The most important thing is that people should follow the guidance that we’ve set out and people shouldn’t be cancelling things, and there’s no need for that at all, that’s not what we’re saying.”

He said apart from the measures introduced “we want people to continue as they are”.

I’m very very keen that people understand this, we don’t want people to feel that they need to start cancelling things, to start… you talk about kids in nativity plays and that kind of thing.

“I don’t think there’s any need to stop that at all.”

It came after Science minister George Freeman told the morning press rounds his department would not be holding a big Christmas gathering and would likely just have a festive toast on Zoom.

He told Times Radio: “The Department of Business, we won’t be having a big Christmas party this year, nobody would expect us to. My parliamentary team, I think we have agreed, probably given the new variant will get together on Zoom and toast each other.”

He admitted the remote meeting would not be the “best party in the world”.

After his shot the Prime Minister also faced questions about an alleged Christmas Party at Downing Street during lockdown last year.

Boris Johnson said any events held at No 10 were “in accordance with the rules”.

Asked whether he was holding a Christmas party, the Prime Minister told broadcasters there were events held in Downing Street “the whole time” and added: “We had events for Hanukkah, we turned the Christmas lights on, and all sorts of things in Number 10, and in accordance with the rules as you would expect.”

He told broadcasters there has to be a “balanced and proportional approach” to tackling the Omicron variant.

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