Nearly 14,000 people in Britain have applied for government compensation for alleged harm caused by Covid vaccines such as strokes and heart attacks.

While thousands have been turned down by medical assessors who say there is not enough evidence of the jab causing harm, payments of £120,000 have been doled out in 175 cases - fewer than two per cent of those who applied.

Applicants have been awarded payments for conditions including dangerous blood clots, inflammation of the spinal cord, excessive swelling of the vaccinated limb and facial paralysis as well as for strokes and heart attacks.

An astonishing 97 per cent of successful claims relate to the AstraZeneca vaccine with just a handful relating to damage caused by Pfizer or Moderna, according to Freedom of Information requests made by The Telegraph.

The Government continued to recommend the AstraZeneca jab despite warnings and even after roll-outs had been stopped by March 2021 in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden and Latvia.

Leona Sanders, wife of British champion flat race jockey Seb Sanders, both 52, was left hospital-bound after three AstraZeneca jabs.

Despite being told that the vaccine would not interfere with her rare autoimmune disorder granulomatosis - which causes inflammation of the blood vessels - her compensation request was denied.

Mr Sanders said: 'The collapses all came just days after she had the vaccine but the medical assessor rejected the claim.

'The medical notes said she had a history of back pain and multiple falls, but Leona never complained about back pain or had falls before the jab. 

'She was very active, always with the horses. She never sat down.

'It's flawed me. I don't like being made to feel like I am a liar.'

A vaccine Damage Payment Scheme was founded in the UK in 1979 and has had around 16,000 applications, the majority of which is now made up by Covid jab claims.

Of these Covid claims, more than 5,500 have been rejected and a further 519 dismissed before a medical assessment. 

Just 12 of 1,000 who asked for their case to be reconsidered have had their decision reversed.