Mandatory vaccination is “unethical,” Sajid Javid said after the prime minister called for a “national conversation” on the way forward to deal with Covid-19.

Boris Johnson has said he does not want a society where people are forced to get vaccinated, but that the use of restrictions to control the spread of the coronavirus cannot continue “indefinitely”.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said getting vaccinated should be a positive choice and that it would not be practical to force people to get vaccinated, as is being considered in some European countries.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has suggested that mandatory jabs should be considered across the EU.

Austria is expected to impose vaccination from February, while in Greece people over 60 who refuse a vaccine will face monthly fines from January.

Mr Javid said compulsory vaccination is “unethical and also at a practical level it would not work”.

He said there is an exception in the case of health and care staff, working in a “high risk” environment, where mandatory Covid-19 jabs are being introduced in England.

“But if you ask me about universal compulsory vaccination – as some countries in Europe have said they will – on a practical level, I just don’t think it would work because getting vaccinated should be a decision. positive, “he told today’s BBC Radio 4 program.

At a press conference in Downing Street on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said that since the start of the pandemic, “I didn’t want us to have a society and a culture where we force people to get vaccinated, I don’t think that’s ever been the way we do things in this country ”.

But if it turns out that the vaccines are able to “hold back” the Omicron variant, “there will come a time” where “we need to have a conversation about how we are handling this pandemic.”

“I don’t believe we can go on indefinitely with non-pharmaceutical interventions, restrictions on people’s lifestyles, just because a substantial proportion of the population has unfortunately still not been vaccinated.”