In what has been described as “emotionally manipulative propaganda”, the British government has released a high-production lockdown ad campaign, attempt to guilt the public into obeying the country’s lockdown restrictions.

On Saturday, the official Number 10 Downing Street account for the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Twitter published a dramatic video of sickly coronavirus patients and National Health Service (NHS) workers, demanding that Britons “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives”.

As ominous Hollywood-esque piano plays in the background, the video pans in close to the eyes of coronavirus patients, and the narrator says: “Look them in the eyes and tell them you’re doing all you can to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The shock ad was accompanied by the message: “COVID-19 hospital admissions are higher than ever. It’s likely someone near you has it. So only go out if it’s essential. Sticking to the rules stops the spread.”

The video was released alongside campaign pictures of morose-looking elderly people wearing oxygen masks, with text saying: “Look him/her in the eyes” and tell them “you never bend the rules”, “you always keep a safe distance”, or “that the risk isn’t real”.

London mayor candidate David Kurten lambasted the latest lockdown campaign, urging Britons to “resist the Johnson Regime’s malevolent behavioural psychology [and] emotionally manipulative propaganda.”

“Lockdowns and business closures are unnecessary and disproportionate,” Kurten claimed.

“Stand up for civil liberties,” the lockdown sceptic candidate pronounced.

Conservative Party MP Craig Mackinlay also took aim at the lockdown campaign, likening it to the dire warnings promulgated by the anti-Brexit ‘Project Fear’ campaign during the 2016 EU referendum.

“It seems to me we are now being held hostage to a zero Covid policy which is completely unattainable – or if you do attain it we are going to be in lockdown for an incredibly long period. That just cannot be,” Mackinlay told the Daily Mail.

“The next thing will be ‘oh dear, this new variant from Timbuktu is not responsive to the vaccine’, or ‘the vaccine doesn’t work against it’,” he warned.

The use of scare tactics from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government comes as the British healthcare establishment has claimed that the so-called ‘Kent’ mutation of the virus is up to 30 per cent deadlier than previous strains of the Chinese virus.

Just over a week ago, the government also warned Brits that buying a coffee or seeing friends could “cost lives“.

“Unnecessary social contact puts you and others at risk. If you are buying takeaway food or drinks, remember: wash your hands, wear a face-covering indoors and stay 2 metres apart from others,” the government’s lockdown advert said.

Another post went on to say that “catch-ups” with friends will “costs lives,” adding: “Meeting others unnecessarily could be the link in a chain of transmission that has a vulnerable person at the end.”

In October, the healthcare analyst firm Dr Foster revealed that the government’s shock tactics surrounding the coronavirus have resulted in a massive decrease in the number of non-coronavirus illnesses being treated by Britain’s socialised healthcare system.

The report found that the government’s message to “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” scared away patients from going to the hospital, resulting in up to a 90 per cent drop in non-coronavirus related admissions, which the analyst firm warned could result in excess deaths.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka