Dr Rosena Allin-Khan accused vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi of helping his relatives potentially skip the line for inoculations.

She tweeted: ‘I have heard rumours that [Nadhim Zahawi] got him and his family vaccinated in Wandsworth.’

Dr Allin-Khan, MP for Tooting, later deleted the tweet and wrote: ‘I have deleted my earlier tweets which were inappropriate and wrong.

‘I regret sharing unsubstantiated claims about the Minister and I apologise to him and his family.’

Zahawi, MP for Stratford-on-Avon, accepted her apology, adding: ‘Thank you for apologising, the accusation was not true.

‘It is sad you chose to act like this, we all need to work together to beat this awful disease.’

Hospitals have begun receiving the first batches of the newly approved Oxford University/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine ahead of the jab’s rollout tomorrow.

Some 530,000 doses will be ready to be administered across the UK, with healthcare workers, people living in care homes and the elderly being prioritised.

Distribution of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab began almost a month ago, with more than a million people having already received their first coronavirus jab.

The government is targeting around two million vaccination every week which may be required to ease most restrictions by Easter.

Meanwhile, the UK has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day running, while a further 454 deaths were also reported.

Another 54,990 Covid-19 infections were confirmed on Sunday, amid increasing warnings that the NHS will not be able to cope with the coming surge in hospitalisations.