Nadhim Zahawi told the Daily Telegraph the first booster doses will go to the over-70s, health and social care staff and the clinically vulnerable.

Scientists have been developing booster jabs to combat new Covid variants.

More than 29 million people in the UK have now had a first dose of a vaccine.

Revealing details of the plan to the newspaper, Mr Zahawi said the "most likely date" for booster jabs to begin would be September.

He said deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam thought "that if we are going to see a requirement for a booster jab to protect the most vulnerable, [it] would be around September".

The first booster jabs will be given to those in the top four priority groups of the vaccine rollout - which include the over-70s, health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable.