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By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) – Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has mentioned he ordered navy chiefs to plan a raid on a Dutch manufacturing facility in March 2021 to safe 5 million COVID vaccines that the European Union had threatened to bar from being exported to Britain.
Johnson mentioned the deputy chief of Britain’s defence workers on the time, Lieutenant Common Doug Chalmers, had instructed him a raid utilizing small boats to cross the Channel and navigate Dutch canals could be potential – however warned him of diplomatic repercussions.
Based on Johnson, Chalmers – who has since retired from the navy – instructed him it might not be potential to hold out the mission undetected and that “if we’re detected we must clarify why we’re successfully invading a long-standing NATO ally”.
“I secretly agreed with what all of them thought however didn’t wish to say aloud: that the entire thing was nuts,” Johnson mentioned in an extract from his memoirs that was revealed in Saturday’s Each day Mail newspaper.
Britain’s defence ministry had no rapid touch upon the account. A spokesperson for Chalmers – who now serves as chair of the federal government’s committee on requirements in public life – mentioned he was unable to touch upon confidential safety discussions.
The COVID vaccines below dispute had been developed by the College of Oxford and AstraZeneca however doses had been manufactured by subcontractors within the Netherlands and Britain.
In March 2021, the vaccines had been broadly utilized in Britain however doses made on the Dutch plant had been nonetheless pending EU approval.
Each Britain and the EU had contracts with AstraZeneca for vaccines and the EU sought to carry again completed vaccines on the Dutch plant for its personal future use.
Johnson – who gained election in December 2019 on a promise to conclude drawn-out talks to depart the EU – mentioned he believed EU officers had been performing below strain from French President Emmanuel Macron.
“After two months of futile negotiation I had come to the conclusion that the EU was treating us with malice and with spite … as a result of we had been vaccinating our inhabitants a lot sooner than they had been,” mentioned Johnson, who was compelled out of workplace in 2022 following scandals together with breaches of COVID lockdown guidelines.
(Reporting by David Milliken; enhancing by Helen Popper)
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