Covid investigation expected to reveal former prime minister open to ‘military options’ to get vaccines ‘seized’ from Leiden factory
Boris Johnson’s appearance before the Covid-19 investigation probably won’t happen until Wednesday, but it’s already making headlines in the Netherlands, amid a combination of amusement and fear over claims that he asked British spies to plan a “raid” on a Dutch city. vaccine factory.
The operation – according to sources briefed to Johnson’s employer, the Daily Mail – would have come against the backdrop of a standoff in March 2021 between the then-Prime Minister and the EU, which was moving towards a restriction on vaccine exports. across the Channel.
An “enraged” Johnson has called on security facilities to expand “military options” to protect “seized” doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from a Leiden plant after Britain brokered a deal with the company.
But even as British security escaped its biggest debacle on Dutch soil since Operation Market Garden, the claim made headlines in the Netherlands. Elsewhere, Russian state media published a harrowing report on those claims, interspersing clips of Johnson with footage of British special forces. and overlaying them with a sinister recoil.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said it was “aware” of the report but declined to comment.
Johnson is expected to address the episode, potentially in a brief accompanying his testimony at the inquest, which will take place Wednesday and Thursday.
Figures close to Johnson have been busy briefing the media ahead of his appearance, announcing that he would reject claims that he was not sufficiently involved in politics during the 10 days.
The former Conservative leader rejects claims that he did not focus on the impending risk of a pandemic during the February 2020 holidays because he allegedly wrote a biography of William Shakespeare.
A spokesperson for Johnson previously rejected reports that he was focused on the book during the critical period in question but Downing Street also did not deny that Johnson had worked on the book, for which he received a £88,000 advance from his publisher Hodder & Stoughton UK in 2015, since becoming prime minister in July 2019.
“The evidence shows, from the newspaper excerpts, that he was not absent all along. He returned to Chevening’s office. The records show that he was running the whole time, that he didn’t write a book. . . We think this one is pretty straightforward to manage. The Telegraph quoted a source close to Johnson.
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Johnson is expected to admit some fault when he is cross examined at the inquiry but will also seek to talk up the things that he believed he got right, ranging from the vaccines rollout to eventually opening up the economy.
He will argue that those who criticize him did so from express angles (adding up science, economics, and public fitness in general) and that he is the only user who had to balance all of those things.
The former prime minister will attack, according to his supporters, and will also try to offer ideas on how the UK could deal with a pandemic in the long term.