Boris Johnson asked spies to plan raids on a Dutch factory making Covid vaccines after the EU “stole” UK doses, it has been claimed.
Diplomatic sources said the then-Prime Minister was “enraged” after the EU blocked the export of millions of doses of AstraZeneca vaccines in March 2021.
It has been reported that Mr Johnson went so far as to ask security services to investigate “military options” for retrieving the doses from the factory in Leiden in the Netherlands.
He suggested a covert raid to seize the vaccines which had been bought by the UK Government.
The idea was abandoned after diplomats warned it could further ruin relations with the EU as well as jeopardise vaccine supply from other European factories.
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Boris Johnson will appear before the Covid Inquiry this week and has already given written evidence to make his frustration with Brussels’s actions clear.
One diplomatic source told the Mail: “The EU had sequestered five million doses. Of course the PM was enraged – they were putting British lives at risk to make a political point and distract from their own failings.
“He ordered officials to look at all options for responding, and that did include asking the security services to look at whether there were any options for physically going and taking the vaccines from the Netherlands and bringing them here.”
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A second source said the EU’s actions “set back relations with Brussels for at least a year”.
The source added: “The EU could not accept the fact that we had negotiated a better deal with AstraZeneca and so they essentially impounded these vaccines in the Netherlands. They were effectively stolen.”
A spokesman for Mr Johnson declined to comment, saying only that he was “looking forward to assisting the inquiry with its important work”.
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