Up to 1.3 million people living in the UK unlawfully can receive a coronavirus vaccine without any risk of being deported, the Home Office has claimed. 

The Government is aiming to reach people not registered to a GP, in an effort to inoculate as many of the population as possible. 

That means illegal immigrants can register with a doctor’s surgery and not fear any action from the Home Office. It is hoped that the amnesty on immigration status checks will be a further boost to the vaccination roll out. 

A Government spokesman explained: ‘Coronavirus vaccines will be offered to everyone living in the UK free of charge, regardless of immigration status. Those registered with a GP are being contacted at the earliest opportunity and we are working closely with partners and external organisations to contact those who are not registered with a GP to ensure they are also offered the vaccine.’

It is extremely difficult to quantify how many illegal immigrants are in the UK, and even the Office for National Statistics has real difficulty compiling such figures.

Research by the Pew Research Centre estimated that there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million ‘unauthorised immigrants’ in the UK in 2017.

But Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said there were ‘significant questions about the accuracy of the estimates’ as it explored a variety of other studies on the issue, which said the number could be anywhere from between 120,000 and 1.3 million. 

A recent influx of immigrants coming into the country by boat is unlikely to have significantly increased that number.

It is also difficult to say which priority groups those people would fall into because their ages are also undocumented.

But even if they are younger people, charities may be concerned that some immigrants are in poorer health and lacking access to healthcare – therefore putting them at greater risk from Covid-19.

Ministers are hoping to offer everyone aged 50 and over a first jab by May. 

The Government is also aiming to offer jabs to all those in the top four priority groups by the middle of the month

As of yesterday, some 12,014,288 people had been given a first dose, with 511,447 getting their second jab, official figures show. 

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