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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was in office throughout the pandemic, will ‘allude’ to this dramatic vaccine episode during his appearance at the Covid Inquiry this week
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Boris Johnson asked spies to investigate options for raiding a Dutch Covid vaccine factory after the EU threatened to block export of Britain’s doses.
The former prime minister, who has been working through the pandemic, was furious when Brussels prevented the shipment of five million AstraZeneca vaccines to the UK in March 2021, diplomatic sources told MailOnline. In a normal move, it even asked security facilities to investigate “military options” to recover doses from the plant in Leiden, the Netherlands. But diplomats told him it would damage relations and threaten vaccine materials from other parts of the EU.
Two diplomatic outlets told the newspaper that Johnson was so angry about Brussels’ interference that he contemplated ordering a “secret raid” to capture vaccines paid for through the British government. The diplomatic vaccine crisis was sparked through a dispute between Brussels and the Anglo-Swedish government. AstraZeneca has refused to divert materials from UK factories and Brussels has responded by threatening to ban exports from its territory.
The former Prime Minister reportedly “alluded” to the request in his appearance this week at the Covid inquiry. A source told the newspaper: “The EU had necessarily hijacked five million doses of our vaccine. Of course, the Prime Minister was furious, they were furious risking the lives of other Britons to make a political argument and divert attention from their own failures. “We took a look at all the reaction functions, and that involved asking the security services to examine whether there were functions to physically pass through and take the vaccines from the Netherlands and bring them here. “
Almost four years after the first COVID-19 cases emerged in China, the UK’s independent probe is poring over WhatsApp messages, phone records and diary entries of key government officials and hauling in witnesses to examine political decision-making during the crisis. The UK had one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks, with around 230,000 coronavirus-related deaths recorded, according to government statistics. Many bereaved families say decisions and actions by politicians at the time contributed to many unnecessary deaths.
Johnson will testify ahead of the inquest this week in highly anticipated appearances on Wednesday and Thursday. Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor during the pandemic, is also expected to testify later in December.
A second source said of the raid: “Boris was infuriated, as you would expect, and he wanted to look at every avenue for responding. It went well beyond trade retaliation; it was diplomatic, security, and everything. He felt he was fighting for British lives and at one point he did ask whether there were military options for just going and getting these vaccines.
“Obviously, this would have had primary repercussions, especially on other vaccines manufactured in the EU. I don’t know how far the concept went. ” In the end, the UK managed to update the doses with batches from India. It was expected and expected that Johnson would acknowledge the enormous pain caused by the shocking death toll from the pandemic.
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