FRANCE swiped almost five million vaccine doses from Britain in a shocking post-Brexit tantrum.
President Emmanuel Macron plotted with Brussels chiefs like a modern Napoleon Bonaparte as Britain’s Covid jabs rollout humiliated the EU earlier this year.
A massive batch of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine expected to arrive in the UK was instead diverted from Holland. The PM then successfully focused on keeping Pfizer jabs flowing.
Tories last night said France’s actions could have cost lives.
In a post-Brexit strop they also threatened to stop the Pfizer vaccine being sent from Europe to the UK — despite our most vulnerable and elderly people desperately needing it for second jabs.
However, Boris Johnson successfully focused on keeping the Pfizer flowing because it was so crucial to maintaining our rollout success.
Raging ministers believe France’s actions could easily have cost lives in the UK. They also compared their menacing threat to that of a “hostile state” rather than “the behaviour of a close ally”.
UK relations with France and Brussels hit rock-bottom in the spring — when Britain’s vaccine rollout tore ahead of the EU’s.
On March 22, AstraZeneca boss Ruud Dobber publicly stated that a vaccine batch — enough to bottle several million doses — was expected to arrive in Britain imminently from its Halix site in Holland.
But it never turned up — instead getting diverted to the EU’s stuttering rollout scheme, sparking blazing rows between the Prime Minister and Mr Macron.
Amid a bitter diplomatic spat, the EU blocked its transfer to the UK, making it clear it would never be granted a licence for export.
This is despite the fact that France and other EU countries were sniping at the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab’s effectiveness — and refusing to say if it was safe to give to the entire population.
At the time an EU diplomat said: “AstraZeneca has made promises to both the UK and the EU that it cannot fulfil. So there will need to be some sort of deal.
“But it’s worth remembering that these Halix doses are in the EU, and AstraZeneca needs permission to ship any of them to the UK, so the cards are stacked against the UK.”
It is also claimed France made a veiled threat to Mr Johnson that they would cut off supplies of Pfizer made on the continent, which would have destroyed Britain’s jabs rollout.
Senior government figures have compared the behaviour as “akin to an act of war”, and blasted Mr Macron for acting like a mini Napoleon.
One government source told The Sun: “The French stole our vaccines at the same time as they were slagging them off in public and suggesting they weren’t safe to use.
'COST LIVES'
“It was an outrageous thing to do and not the action of an ally, which was made very clear to them.
“Withholding vaccines by stopping them leaving the EU had the potential to cost lives with people waiting for both first and second jabs.
“We had a solid vaccine plan in place and this meant we were able to keep on jabbing. But it was an astonishing, outrageous thing to do.”
Under the EU’s controversial ban, all vaccine makers had to notify national authorities when exporting.
Brussels could then step in and block shipments to countries whose rollouts were better than its own.
The vaccine spat earlier this year plunged Britain’s relations with the EU into crisis less than a month after it had formally left the bloc.
EU chiefs launched an all-out assault on Oxford/AstraZeneca, with Mr Macron falsely claiming it did not work in over-65s and branded it “quasi-ineffective”.
EU boss Ursula von der Leyen also accused the UK of cutting corners in its approval of the jab.
The result was devastating, with many Europeans shunning the life-saving vaccine amid the bogus safety fears.
Britain and France’s clashes
- BREXIT: France took the hardest EU line in October 2016, insisting Britain must pay “a price.” They warned negotiations “will not end well and, inevitably, will have economic and human consequences”.
- INSULT: Boris Johnson, as Foreign Secretary in January 2017, sparked uproar in Paris when he compared the French President to a Colditz POW guard, saying France wanted to dish out UK “punishment beatings” over Brexit.
- SCALLOPS: British and French boats clashed in the Channel in August 2018 over access to shellfish stocks as Brexit tensions boiled over.
- RED LINES: France demanded the EU took a hard line in February 2020 on state aid and the so-called Level Playing Field, sparking a row with the PM.
- VACCINES: Macron pushed the EU into declaring a vaccine war on Britain in January and cast doubt on the AZ jab. He declared it was “quasi-ineffective” on people older than 65 — just hours before the EU’s drugs regulator approved it for use on all adults.
- JERSEY: French armada of fishing boats blockade the island in May in a row over access to waters, and Royal Navy sent in.
- SAUSAGES: No 10 enraged the Elysee in June when it briefed that Mr Macron had suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the UK during G7 talks.
- MIGRATION: Home Secretary Priti Patel accused France in September of failing to do enough to stop illegal Channel boat crossings and threatened to withhold £50million funding.
- AUKUS: Paris was apoplectic in September when Australia abandoned a submarine deal with them to pursue the new alliance with the Britain and US.
- ENERGY: Macron threatened to cut power supplies to Jersey and the UK in October unless French fishermen are granted more licences in UK waters.
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