Emergency laws to “stamp out dangerous” anti-vaccine content online should be introduced, Labour has said.

The party is calling for financial and criminal penalties for social media firms that do not remove false scare stories about vaccines.

It follows news of progress on the first effective coronavirus vaccine.

The government said it took the issue “extremely seriously” with “a major commitment” from Facebook, Twitter and Google to tackle anti-vaccine content.

Many social media platforms label false content as misleading or disputed – and all remove posts that contravene terms of service.

But Labour said a commitment by platforms to remove content flagged by the government was not enough.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said such content was “exploiting people’s fears, their mistrust of institutions and governments and spreading poison and harm”.

He told BBC Breakfast his party wanted to work with the government on a cross-party basis to build trust and help promote take-up of the vaccine.

He said people would have legitimate questions about what the vaccine means for them, levels of immunity and whether the vaccine was appropriate for those with chronic health conditions.

“There’s nothing wrong with asking those questions and strong public health messaging from the government, reinforced by us, will allay those fears,” he said.