Claims at Reform conference that vaccines gave royals cancer 'extremism', says Streeting

A vaccine-sceptic doctor has told the Reform UK conference that COVID vaccines contributed to cancer in the royal family - to criticisms of "extremism" from the health secretary and condemnation from experts.

Dr Aseem Malhotra spent around a quarter of an hour presenting a series of claims on the main stage of the conference in Birmingham - with thousands present in the crowd. Dr Malhotra, who described himself as a friend of controversial US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, said hundreds of studies showed the harms of mRNA vaccines.

He went on to say that he agreed with another doctor that "it's highly likely that the COVID vaccines have been a factor, a significant factor, in the cancer of members of the royal family." Politics latest: Starmer continues ministerial reshuffle Sky News has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment. The comments were met with silence from the audience in the room.

Wes Streeting, the Labour MP and health secretary, was quick to criticise Dr Malhotra. He said: "When we are seeing falling numbers of parents getting their children vaccinated, and a resurgence of disease we had previously eradicated, it is shockingly irresponsible for Nigel Farage to give a platform to these poisonous lies.

"Farage should apologise and sever all ties with this dangerous extremism." Read more:Inside the fight over vaccines in the USWhy are child vaccination rates the lowest in decade Blood Cancer UK's healthcare professional advisory panel, which is made up of specialists from across the UK, said: "There are no controlled, large-scale studies (studies with the most robust scientific evidence) that demonstrate an increased cancer risk following COVID-19 vaccination." Brian Ferguson, a professor of viral immunology and the University of Cambridge, said: "There is no credible evidence that these vaccines disrupt tumour suppressors or drive any kind of process - biochemical or otherwise - that results in cancer. "It is particularly crass to try to link this pseudoscience to the unfortunate incidents of cancer in the royal family and is reminiscent of the 'died suddenly' trope which attempted - and ultimately failed - to link the death of any young person to their vaccination status.

"This kind of outlandish conspiracy theory only serves to undermine the credibility of those spreading it." Lord Bethell, the Conservative peer and former health minister, said: "This [is] bad science, bad royal-watching and bad politics - the British public strongly support vaccines and resent people who try to hijack our much-loved royal family for promoting loopy ideas. "Might work well with American donors, but this is a clanger for Reform UK's credibility.

I hope they give up this rubbish." A spokesperson for Reform UK said: "Dr Aseem Malhotra is a guest speaker with his own opinions who has an advisory role in the US government. Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech.".